









/ firl 'jyt 


*fl 




■t'Vv'v-';-; 




' 




Wvffi'''----- ■■■;■■■<■ ■, ■-?%>';'':■ ■■ ; •',' '''■[■ ''; 












|H - 




1 ^ jL Jk 


1 


' 






: # 


■ 











UBRAPV OF CONGRESS. 

S^W^:fiq^pi^ 

Shelf MESi 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



GUATEMOZIN. 



A DRAMA. 



y 



MALCOLM MACDONALD. 

ft 




PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1878. 






Copyright, 1878, by Malcolm Macdonald. 



DRAMATIS PERSONS. 



Guatemozin, King of Mexico. 

The Lord of Tacuba. 

Tizoc, a Prince of Mexico. 

Oyot, 1 

Culquil, I Aztec Nobles. 

Maxtla, J 

Tunal, a Slave. 

Tecuichpo, Queen of Mexico. 

Acalan, Princess of Tezcuco. 

A Crazy Woman. 

Hernando Cortes. 

Alderete, Royal Treasurer. 

Farfan, "1 

Panfilio, I Officers under Cortes. 

Ramon, J 

Antonio de Villafana, 

Munoz, 

Jeronimo, 

Fernan, 

Pedro, 

Bamba, 

Istrisuchil, King of Tezcuco, brother of Coanaco, the deposed 

king, and usurping the throne by the countenance of Cortes. 
Ambassadors, Alguazils, Conspirators; Aztec, Spanish, and Tez- 

cucan Soldiers ; Messengers and Attendants. 

3 



Soldiers. 



GUATEMOZIN. 



GUATEMOZIN. 



ACT I. 
SCENE I.— MEXICO. 

In the garden of the King' s Palace. 

[Princess Aqalan is sitting in a bower. ~\ 

Enter the Lord of Tacuba. 

Tacuba. 
How blue the sky ! What ecstasy of air ! 
The soothing wind touches, as gently fall 
The petals of a rose on waters smooth, 
Dimpling to quiver and be still again. 

how this flower is sweetening the day ! 
Yon bird, with melody achoke and strangling 
With harmony, if throbbing throat could break, 
What flood of song would inundate the air ! 

1 seek a fairer flower, a sweeter voice. 

She should be waiting here beside this agave, 
That burst in bloom the day we vowed our loves. 

Seeing Aqalan, and advancing. 
7 



8 Gnatemozin. [act i 

I will go stealthily as an ocelot, 
And take her by surprise. 

Pausing. 

But hark ! she sings. 
Hold all your breaths, and mingle not, ye winds, 
With hers a baser air ; be dumb, ye birds ! 

A^alan, singing. 

I knew a queenly rose, 

She loved the kingly sun, 
And fairer grew : love beauty grows 

In every one. 
Ah, love! sweet love! thou can'st say no, 
And hearts be colder than the snow. 

He wooed her all the day, 

At night his love departed. 
She wept, his course she could not stay ; 

Poor broken-hearted ! 
Ah, love ! sweet love ! thou can'st say no, 
And hearts be colder than the snow. 

The sun came back again, 

Alas ! • he was too late. 
Her drooping head revealed she then 

Was near her fate. 
Ah, love ! sweet love ! thou can'st say no, 
And hearts be colder than the snow. 



scene I.] Guatemozin. g 

She thrills, her bosom heaves ; 
O could' st thou not abide ? 
The breezes cast her pallid leaves 

On every aide. 
Ah, love ! sweet love ! thou can'st say no, 
And hearts be colder than the snow. 

Tacuba kneels by her. 

AgALAN, starting. 

You frighten me ! 

Tacuba. 

O pardon — 

AgALAN. 

Nay, now fear, 
Since it may hide in love, shall never fright 
Again. 

Tacuba. 

And did you sing that lover's song 
Because I was 'way? 

AGALAN. 

Partly no, and yes,— 
I love its melody; I thought of you, — 
You were away; that slight suggestion call'd 
The song to mind, and then its words woke thoughts 



10 Guatemozin. [act i. 

Of Tezcuco, — the fortunes of our house, — 
They said, We are the rose that drops its leaves. 

Tacuba. 

So sad ! you were more hopeful yesterday. 
What gloomy news has come from Tezcuco ? 

AgALAN. 

Oh ! Tacuba, we change from day to day. 
Give us blue sky, a pleasant moving wind, 
And cheery sight of flowers, forgotten all 
Our troubles are : harder it is to grieve. 
I am too childish, quick to weep and quick 
To laugh again ; and then repentance comes, — 
I am a woman, — conscience adds the sum 
Of sorrows. Oh ! I am most miserable. 

Tacuba. 

Am I not banished ? I have glory seen 

Fly from my capital in smoke and flame ; 

Its temples desecrated. But I live, 

And shall regain my throne ; and so shall you 

See Tezcuco when Guatemozin brings 

Thy brother to his throne. 



scene i.] Guaternozin. II 

AgALAN. 

Coanaco, 
Have you seen him of late ? 

Tacuba. 

Ay, he is well. 

AgALAN. 

Since driven from his throne he is so wretched ! 
First, wild with rage, with imprecating speech, 
And gestures terrible to see, he stormed ; 
Then he grew melancholy, and sat alone, 
Moody, and gazed with fixed, despairing eyes ; 
And lastly, from his sight he bade me part, — 
I ' minded him too much of Tezcuco. 
This loads my grief: to think Istrisuchil 
A brother over- weights ! What constitutes 
A brother? — blood, — a common parentage? 
Such bring us near together, and if foes 
They open strife. How is Istrisuchil, 
My brother ? we want other word for him. 

Tacuba. 

A comely stock may bear a warty branch, 
That some unwonted freak of nature grows, 



12 Guatemozin. [act i. 

When form and color of the parent fail : 
But this usurper of his brother's throne 
Is linked to Cortes, and will fall with him. 

AgALAN. 

Will Cortes fail? 

Tacuba. 

The menials of this palace 
Outnumber thrice his men. How can he stand? 

A^alan. 

The Spaniards, ay ; but Cortes grows in strength 
By all our ancient foes, and, what is worse, 
The powers of our throne unfriendly. 

Tacuba. 

Name 
It not, a brittle staff he leans upon : 
They follow slavishly. They fear the throne, — 
It stands on loyal props, which, driven deep 
Beneath the shifting quicksand hearts of men, 
Are firm in custom : to sit thereon is safe. 
Let one step down with trusting feet to walk 
This fair but falsest ground, — men's selfish hearts, — 
And he will sink and drown in treachery. 



scene i.] Guatentozin. 13 

These Spaniards are the knot that ties them all ; 
We'll cut it. Are they gods? We proved them men 
When we revenged the slaughter of our friends. 
We drove them hence. I slew them with these hands. 

A^ALAN. 

In times like these our sex must trust your strength ; 

Sometimes a doubt born of our ignorance 

Makes us to tremble of uncertainty. 

We know our weakness : it is ever here, 

Numbing the heart of hope ; and it is here, 

Tying with cords invisible our hands. 

We cannot know what needed strength you have 

To meet the evils fear is leading on. 

Our arms are pliant stems of slender plants ; 

They cling and wreath the strong with fuller verdure ; 

We cannot bind with them ; we win in th* calm, 

Diviner wage, the tempest tears us down. 

Tacuba. 

Trust us : we reared these empires, and the hands 
That built can keep. 

Enter Prince Tizoc (unobserved}. 

AgALAN. 

So sure : thou hast no fear ? 



14 Guatemozin. [act i. 

Tacuba. 

None, none. The waters over mine are deep ; 
But Mexico stands high, they will recede, 
But not so rapidly that Guatemozin 
May not, as with a wind, blow mightily 
To mist and cloud, to fall in other deeps, 
Their substance, whence they never will return, 
And then for peace ! O, Acalan, one kiss ? 

AgALAN. 

My Tacuba, for that one word, peace. 

They observe Tizoc. 

Tacuba. 

How, 
Now, Prince, eavesdropping with a desp'rate face: 
Meanest thou harm to us ? 

Tizoc. 

Thou art unjust, 
I suddenly came on thy privacy ; 
This open garden and all-seeing sun 
Are gossips ; blame thyself, not me. 

ACALAN. 

Thy scowl ? 



scene I.] Guatemozin. 15 

Tizoc {aside to A^alan). 
You ask me that ! {aloud to Tacuba). 

My scowl ? there is enough 
To make the patient earth wrinkle her brow, 
And shake with frenzy, that she's forced to bear 
Upon her bosom such ingratitude. 
The town of Chalco has deserted us ; 
Cortes gives aidance to her treason by his arms ; 
The King commands that thou, Lord Tacuba, 
In this emergency, as is most fit, 
Shalt lead our arms against these rebels. 

Tacuba. 

What, 

Has Chalco too rebelled ! Half-hearted slaves. 

Jumping to Cortes' arms they'll meet instead 

Our spears. 'Tis ever thus when dangers threat 

That cowards fly, and selfish interest 

Forgets the past, the generous provider, 

Whose bounty battened it, for fear to lose 

The merest fraction : but they shall eat dust ; 

Be beggars for a crust of favor. 

Tizoc. 

Ay, 
But mouthing threats will win no battles. Go 
Thou to the king. 



1 6 Guatemozin. [act i. 

Tacuba. 
Thy way belies thy words; 
Thou art my enemy. 

Tizoc. 
Pardon, my lord, 
My rough and ardent tongue ; these Chalcoans 
Have spoiled my temper for to-day. 

Tacuba. 

Lead on ; 
Let's to the king. 

To AgALAN. 

Farewell. 
Exeunt Tacuba and Tizoc. 

AgALAN. 

I fear Tizoc : 
That Tacuba was mine, I Tacuba' s, 
He knew not : I concealed my precious secret, 
Not to allure, it was mine own — mine own. 
I hate the man ; I strove to quench his love 
By ways as sure as water to quench fire ; 
But such a steam and sooty passion rises 
Out o' him, he seems for very spite to woo. 

Re-enter Tizoc. 



scene i.] Guatemozin. 17 

Tizoc. 

So ice may melt ! I thought thee proud and cold, 
And hoped by importunity to win. 
So I have sought roses in Tacuba' s 
Garden. Thou hast misused me. 

A^ALAN. 

It is false, 
Foolish man. 

Tizoc. 
So, thou lovest Tacuba? 

A^ALAN. 

Enough of this, Sir Prince. Thou art unfit 
For ladies' company. 

Exit A^ALAN. 

Tacuba. 

On thee, on thee, 
My Lord of Tacuba. 

Looking around suspiciously. 

I am a babbler ; 
I cannot trust the tongueless earth with that. 



1 8 Guatemozin. [act l 

SCENE II.— MEXICO. 
A room in Prince Tizoc' s house. 

Enter Prince Tizoc. 

Tizoc. 

And so she loves the Lord of Tacuba ; 

Nathless she shall be mine, shall lay her head 

Upon my breast, look sweetly in my eyes. 

'Tis grief that beautifies a woman's soul : 

Her tears reveal within her heart a hoard 

Of tenderness, as streams swifter with rains 

Disclose the virgin gold. Her love to grow 

Must root itself in fear, a dread of loss, — 

Ay, even loss, too rich a soil is bad ; 

Flatter a woman with continual joy 

And love grows rank, all stalk and leaves. 

No drought, no fruit : she must be starved to beg ; 

And when she begs, by love's quick providence, 

With boundless wealth repays our charity ; 

And so would love, if Tacuba should die, 

Feed with the worms ? No, no, love feeds on warm 

And breath-moist lips, and sets his fire in th' eyes. 

Not in the sockets of a skull. I will be food. 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 19 

Sweet Acalan, in poverty shall grip 

The one sole morsel left of all to her. 

All will be well if Tacuba but die. 

{Pondering.') It needs must be. {Calling.) Ho, 

Attend me instantly ! 

Enter Attendant. 
Send me the slave I got to-day. 

Exit Attendant. 
I bought 
Him for his viciousness. Intractable, 
He must be harshly tamed : fear must persuade, 
And interest enlarge obedience. 
I'll practice on his vents of whims and humors, 
Till, like a windy flute, he pipes my way. 
First, to be cruel, and make him despair ; 
Then offer freedom for his price ; twice bought, 
Then twice my slave, the deed is doubly sure. 

Enter Tunal, the slave. 

Tizoc to Tunal. 
Knowest thou who thy owner is ? 

Tunal. 

Thou art 
He. 



20 Gttatemozin. [act i. 

Tizoc. 
Ay? 



TUNAL. 

The Prince Tizoc ? 

Tizoc. 

Thou knowest not 
Thy owner yet. Stand near to me, — so, so. 
If I should sell thee, what would be thy fate ? 

Tunal. 
If twice I'm sold the law condemns to death. 

Tizoc. 
And carest thou to live? 

Tunal. 
Ay, sir, to live. 

Tizoc. 



Wilt thou obey my will, obsequious 
As my shadow ; be without identity ; 
A particle of earth lost in the soil 



scene il] Guatemozin. 21 

Of servitude, the mold which I shall till ; 
An instrument without a thought but mine, 
My hands shall use, without a feeling, worn, 
Abused in using ? 

Tunal. • 

Ay, my master. 

Tizoc. 

I 

Shall see. Bring me yon staff. 

Tunal brings the staff to Tizoc, who beats him 
with it, and then throws it away. 
Bring it to me 
Again. 

Tunal brings it, and Tizoc beats him, and throws 
it away as before. 
Go, bring the staff again. 

Tunal brings it again, but when Tizoc goes to 
strike he seizes him and they struggle. 

Tizoc. 
Unhand 
Me, villain. Help ! Help ! Help ! 

Tunal. 

I'll strangle thee. 
Enter Attendants. 



22 Guatemozin. [act i. 

Tizoc. 
Ha ! Seize the slave and bind him fast with cords. 

The Attendants master and bind Tunal. 

Tunal, 
Bind me — the cords may break — bind me with death ; 
I welcome death. What hold hast thou on me ? 
I will provoke thee, proud and cruel man. 

Tizoc. 
Ho, ho! (To Attendants.) Go, leave the slave alone 
with me. 

Exeunt Attendants. 
If, when I tickle thee, thou art enraged 
Beyond the trifling cause, what wilt thou do 
When I thee cage as something wild, — a beast, — 
And feed thee with the food we give to brutes ; 
And daily for amusement stir thee up, 
And prick thee with my spear to see thee snarl, 
And bite thy bars? 

Tunal. 

I'll curse thee till I die. 

Tizoc. 
How earnest thou a slave : so stout a heart 
Should have fared better ? 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 23 

Tunal. 
What, against the State, 
The frowns of heaven, and the fraud of man ! 
I was an husbandman ; unfruitful fields 
And cloudless skies first taught me treachery, 
And thrice my crops made fail. The King's tax-man 
Is never barren of his tribute ; though 
A nation perish with a famine, food 
Is in kings' houses, even some to waste. 
Thrice him I paid my store ; when all was gone 
He came again ; for want of evidence 
To free me I was sold a slave, my wife 
And children — 

Tizoc. 
Wife and children ! where are they ? 

Tunal. 
Why wouldst thou know ! What have they done to thee . 

Tizoc. 
They shall be mine to torture in thy sight ; 
That touches on the raw: thou wincest, ha ! 
Think you to lay your slavish hands on me, 
And go unpunished ? Shall death steal the purse 
The almoner of misery, Revenge, 
Has filled with pains to give in charity? 



24 Guatemozin. [act i. 

Tunal. 

O, mercy, mercy ! why have I a heart, 

To suffer with? The beast forgets his young, — 

Would I was one ; or stone insensible, 

And laid beneath the feet of men, and worn, 

And blown to indistinguishable earth. 

O, master, pardon : look into thy heart, 

Thou wouldst not patiently endure a wrong. 

Tizoc. 
Thou art a daring slave. I am a prince. 

Tunal. 

I will serve thee as more than all thy slaves ; 
Anxious to do thy will as starving man 
Hungers for food \ and quick to yield thy wish 
While yet 'tis breathed, as tender grass to bend, 
Wind-blown ; as particular as searching air 
To find and fill up every space of duty ; 
And I will bear thy treatment humbly, but — 
Pity my wife and children. 

Tizoc. 

Thinkest thou 
I have no purpose other than to play ? 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 25 

I have no pity. Thou art mine; thy life, 

And what is dearer than thy life, are mine ; 

Ay, more is mine : to make thee free again ; 

Thy last estate happier than thy first. 

What is a slave one more or less to me ? 

I'm rich in slaves — and yet among them all 

None can I trust : a half-willed service robs 

Me of my property. Sell me thyself: 

Sell me thy will, I'll pay thee well for it. 

I saw thee in the Mart : thy scowling face 

Brought none to buy, — I bought thee for that look ; 

Thou wert untamed and still had will. Hark thou, 

Thy business must be mine, thy life, thy hopes, 

Thy fears be mine, and thine ; I must be served, 

Un marred by cowardly or careless work, 

So that the deed be done, as needs, well done, 

Thou shalt be free again. 

Is this your price? 

Here is no room for gratitude or hate, 

Or any mawkish feelings of the heart : 

'Tis business, plain and sober traffic. Think 

vVell on my words. He unbinds Tunal. 

TUNAL. 

Thou art upraising me 
To make my fall the deeper. 



26 Guatemozin. [act i. 

Tizoc. 

No, my man ; 
I am no trifler. 

Tunal. 

O, my master, free — 
Be free once more ; to peril life and limb ! 
What is the labor? Life is liberty, 
Death, freedom ! be the deed a fearful thing, 
I will do it. 

Tizoc. 
Only to kill a man. 
Faugh ! see the knave start at the thought. 

Tunal. 

Nay, master; 
I will do it. 

Tizoc. 

Art thou a bowman skilled 
To fly a shaft true to a little mark ? 

Tunal. 

Ay, I have flown an arrow at the sky, 
And whilst it fell have made another strike 
It in mid air. 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 27 

Tizoc. 

'Tis well. Attend my words, — 
Go cautiously : we tread on cracking sticks, 
And keep thy tongue as if a spear had made 
It motionless. To-morrow, with the Lord 
Of Tacuba, I march against the Spaniards ; 
With me thou goest ; what my purpose is 
I will acquaint thee then. Go, call my page. 

Tunal goes to the door and returns with a Page. 
{To the Page,) Conduct this man into my armory, 
Let him be armed one of my body-guard. 

Exeunt Tunal and Page. 
If he betrays me, what against my word 
Is his — he dies, and if he fails he dies, — 
O, I am safe. My Lord of Tacuba, 
Kiss her on the lips, sweet Acalan is mine : 
For I shall send so fair a shaft, thy body 
Will open lips and kiss thy life away. 



28 Guatemozin. [act i. 

SCENE III.— MEXICO. 

Audience-room of the palace. 

Oyot in attendance. Ambassadors and others waiting 
an audience with the King. 

Enter Aqalan. 

AgALAN to Oyot. 
Doth not the King grant audience to day? 

Oyot. 
Your Highness is too early. 

A^ALAN. 

Have you seen 
The Lord of Tacuba ? 

Oyot. 

He is returned 
From Chaico, and has audience to-day. 

AgALAN. 

And who are these that wait? Methinks I know 
Their faces : are they not from Tezcuco ? 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 29 

Oyot. 
Ay. 

AgALAN. 

I will go and speak with them. 

(Approaching, and speaking to them.") Good sirs — 

Ambassador. 
It is the princess. 

A^ALAN. 

What news from Tezcuco : 
How fares it with that city ? 

Ambassador. 
Madam, we 
Are loath to tell it ; were the hopeless words 
As bitter to the taste as gall 'n our mouths, 
No sense could rebel more. 

AgALAN. 

You have no news : 
Tidings of evil are not news to us. 

Ambassador. 
We bear a letter Cortes sends the king. 

Enter Tacuba, his arm bandaged. 



3<d Gnatemozin. [act i. 

A^alan. 
O, Tacuba, wounded, and sorely ? 

Tacuba. 
No-: 
Only a scratch in my arm. 

AgALAN. 

Tell me all. 

Tacuba. 

We marched to Chalco, walled ourselves 

Between the city and the coming foe ; 

Who, rushing on, astride the monstrous beasts 

Of which they seem a part, struck on our line ; 

We stood the onset bravely, and they fell back, 

As when one throws a stone against a rock, 

Rebounding, and broken, it rolls away. 

A second time they came, and I was hurt — 

Most strangely wounded. 

AGALAN. 

Strangely ! tell me how. 

Tacuba. 
That strange, uncounted sense— rinstinctive fear, 
Sniffed, like a deer that scents the tainted air, 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 31 

The coming evil : quick I turned around \ 
All in a flash I saw the bow full-drawn, 
And back the levelled shaft the baleful eye, 
And felt the arrow pierce. I knew him not, 
And never gave him cause to wish my death. 

A^ALAN. 

No cause to wish thy death ! Did'st thou not get 
Thy wound in battle ? 

Tacuba. 

Ay ; but not from foe. 

Ac;alan. 
A friend, and not a foe ? 

Tacuba. 

Is this the work 
Of friends? 

A^ALAN. 

What troubles you ? thou answerest me 
Such contradictions. 

Tacuba. 
I was thinking : — 'twas 
The slave of Prince Tizoc that wounded me. 



22 Guatemozin. [act i. 

AgALAN. 

What cause had he ? 

Tacuba. 

None. 

AgALAN. 

Knewest thou the man 
In other times ? 

Tacuba. 

I knew him not. It is strange. 

AgALAN. 

Strange, or some enemy is back of him : 

Tizoc— 

Tacuba. 

What means thy agitation ? 

AgALAN. 

O Tacuba,— dear Tacuba, it was— 
My vanity. 

Tacuba. 

Thy vanity, Tizoc, 
The garden, ay : he is unscrupulous, 



Pardon, 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 33 

And so beset with selfishness, the least 

To stir the heart of man becomes in his 

A mountain of complaints that load his reason 

Until it breaks, and wild undoing rules. 

No, no, they seized the slave ; Tizoc smote him, 

But not to death, for he dissembled death ; 

When we were driven by the enemy 

Backward a space, he rose and fled to them. 

Enter Tizoc. 
Tizoc. 
My Lord of Tacuba, I wish you sure 
And quick recovery. 

Tacuba. 

I thank you, Tizoc. 

Tizoc. 
The Princess Acalan, fair cousin, brightest 
Of all the thoughts that poets sing of beauty 
And loveliness incarned. Gaze on, my lady. 

ACALAN. 

Thou can'st not look me in the eyes. 

Tizoc. 

They are 
Too bright, and dazzle mine. 



34 Guatemozin. [act i. 

AgALAN. 

I know thee, Prince. 

Tizoc. 
Behold, my Lord, how she requites my service. 

AgALAN. 

How knewest thou my thoughts ? 

Tizoc. 
I know not now. 

AgALAN. 

Unwary is thy tongue. What service hast 
Thou done ? 

Tizoc. 
I smote the slave that wounded him. 

AgALAN. 

That parried not the shaft. Why magnify 
So small a thing? 

Tizoc. 
'Twas love for Tacuba. 



scene in] Guatemozin. 35 

AgALAN. 

Thy love ? 

Tjzoc. 
Ay, love, and thou shouldst praise the hand 
That was his helper. 

A^ALAN. 

Fair words ; but, Prince Tizoc, 
Thou art most false in this. 

Tizoc. 

Bitter, my lady; 
For less men's lives are often perilous. 

Tacuba. 
The Prince Tizoc must not forget the due 
Of loyal reverence, this princess's right. 

Tizoc. 
Must not ? that speech I am unused to hear. 

Oyot. 
My lords, the king approaches, cease your strife. 

Enter Guatemozin, Culquil, and other attend- 
ants. Guatemozin ascends his throne; all 
render obeisance. 



36 Guatemozin. [act I. 

Guatemozin. 
My Lord of Tacuba, thou hast done well. 

Tacuba, approaching the throne. 

Your majesty, T grieve that my report 
Was of defeat ; we did what man could do. 

Guatemozin. 

Be not down-hearted, for such victories 
Surely defeat themselves, and such defeats 
Shut up unbloomed our victory, as doth 
A cold and passing storm delay a flower, 
That will as surely burst its scentless husk, 
And load the winds with all its treasured sweets. 
The day comes not with lightning-flash to illume 
The darkened earth, and startle us from sleep 
With blinded eyes to blink the noonday glare 
And painful blaze ; the dawn doth softly come, 
A salve to eyes: first shadows lighten, then 
The rising sun — full day will come at last. 

Tacuba. 

Your majesty, 'twas by the wound I got, 

Just when we stood opposed the foe, all strained 

In every power to utmost extent 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 37 

To hold against the tugging tide of war, 
And the cry went up our general is killed. 
As if a cord had snapped that hitherto 
Had held us back, we in confusion 'whelmed 
Upon the stormy sea of battle drove, 
And all was lost. 

Tizoc. 

Your majesty, I grieve 
He was a slave of mine whose treacherous shaft 
Wrought our defeat. 

A^ALAN. 

Your majesty, I charge 
That Prince Tizoc incited to this crime 
His slave. 

Guatemozin. 

What cause had he ? What evidence 
Is there on which to rest so grave a charge ? 

AgALAN. 

He was his slave — and — 

Tizoc. 

Blush, my princess, I 
Will spare thy modesty, and tell it all : 



38 Gnatemozin. [act i. 

I loved this lady, won by charms she ranks 

So highly that because she scorned my suit, 

And knowing well the passion deep in me, 

She thought the maddened lover sought revenge 

Against his fortunate and envied rival, 

And, measured by the jealous wrath such charms 

Ought to have kindled in my heart, his death. 

Guatemozin. 
Thy brutal sneer doth ill become thee, prince. 

Culquil. 
O king, I wot not what my duty is. 
With deeds of loyal love I would thee serve, 
And do no thankless work, myself great harm, 
Coming between the friction of the Great, 
Like corn 'tween grinding stones, all pulverized. 

Guatemozin. 
Speak, thou art safe from harm. 

Culquil. 
This slave we seized, 
And dragged him, struggling, to the rear ; 
He stretched his arms to Prince Tizoc, and cried, 
O master, save ! save me ! 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 39 

Tizoc. 
But did I save ? 
Nay, to revenge. Who smote the slave? 'Twas I. 
He 'scaped by a hair. 

A^ALAN. 

The Prince Tizoc is wise. 

Guatemozin. 
Prince, thou'lt be tried to prove thy innocence; 
But if thy guilt be proved thou art to die : 
For these suspicious fingers, that do here 
Now point at thee, shall double in the fist 
To strike. 

Oyot. 
Your majesty, an embassy 
Awaits an audience, I understand, 
With charge of weighty words. The State demands, 
By urgent pleas of peril in delay, 
To bear. 

Guatemozin. 
Let them approach ; and, prince, more anon. 

The Ambassadors approach the throne. 

Culquil {aside). 
Look, Melancholy sends her children here. 



40 Guatemozin. [act i. 

Ambassador. 
O king, from Cortes we a letter bear. 

Guatemozin. 
Downcast and shamed, your errand sorts with you. 

Ambassador. 
To do this was the price of liberty, 
We prisoners were. 

Guatemozin. 

Give me the letter. 
The letter is handed to Guatemozin, who glances over it. 

Now, 
This blear and impudent eclipse would stare 
The sun clean out of countenance and bring 
Untimely night. Thy scowling eyes may gaze, 
But still he'll shine on us. 

Reads aloud. 
The past shall be 

Forgotten, — those who injured me are dead. 
The injury a robber has when one 
Defends his own : ay, dead, and doth he think 
To win our love by quickening revenge? 

He reads again. 
Only return to thy allegiance. 



scene in.] Gnatemozin. 41 

And all shall be forgiven, thy crown made sure. 

patience, calm my heart, it flutters like 
A bird to fly at him, 

Throwing down the letter and leaving his throne. 
This hissing snake, 
That comes so near her nest. No, Montezuma, 
More priest than soldier, conquered by a fable ; 
Trembler at lawless stars that rush on doom, 
Am I : men are my portents, when I call 
They come, and clothe the land in human verdure. 
Cortes, thou boaster, come, and arrows deep 
Shall cover thee as leaves the forest ground ! 
My country, O my mother ! take back thine own, 
For what I am thy love has made me ; come 
Thy danger in what form, if horrible, 
With that worst agony, the will to do 
Without the power ; ay, be my strength and skill 
As vain as pitch to quench destroying fire, 

1 willingly will give myself for thee. 

Oyot. 
What answer shall be made ? 

Guatemozin. 

I am bent down, 
But I will straighten like a bow that shoots. 



42 Guatemozin. [act i. 

Oyot. 



I beg your majesty — 



Go call to arms. 



To bear advice. 



Guatemozin. 

Sound the alarm ; 

Oyot. 
I crave your majesty 



Guatemozin. 
What buzzing words are these ? 
Wilt thou delay my vengeance? 

Oyot. 
Your majesty's 
Permission to discharge this embassy 
With suitable defiance. 

Guatemozin. 

Let them go : 
I will not answer, but by silence, him, 
'Thas fuller speech than words, which cage the thought 
Within their bars; but silence leaves the mind 
Discourteously to itself to dart 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 43 

On everything contempt engenders there. 
I'll hear no more to-day: the audience 
Is ended. I must count my soldiers o'er, 
And count them o'er again till I am calm. 
My Lord of Tacuba, we will inspect 
Our forces, and determine with what blows 
These hammers of our throne shall fall to crash 
The nutty heads whose cracking will be sweet. 



44 Gnatemozin. [act ii. 

ACT II. 

SCENE L— TEZCUCO. 

Time, night. Antonio de Villafana's qicarters. A 
storm is rising. Lightning flashes at the window. 
Antonio alone. 

Knocking heard at the door. 

Antonio. 
Who's there? if friend, come in; if foe, come on. 

Enter Munoz. 
Welcome, Mufioz ; thou'rt early at our tryst. 

Munoz. 
Prompt as a lover. 

Antonio. 
Wetted our friends will be. 

Munoz. 
It matters not, their ardor '11 dry their clothes; 
They are so hot in this, the flicker of 
The lightning is to them a passing cloud 
Athwart the moon. 

Antonio, going to the window. 
It is an earnest storm. 
The gibbous moon no longer rules alone : 



scene i.] Guatemozin. 45 

From out the caverns of yon mountain-cloud 

Embers of intermittent fires suffuse 

With her, and all the heavens brighter flame. 

On come the breezy heralds of the blast, 

Riding on dusty steeds adown the street ; 

They flap the casements with their winding horns. 

Munoz. 

'Tis time for storms : the lazy air of strict 
Obedience, of smothering routine, 
Sickens me. Breathing kindred breath, awake, 
Ye winds of passion ; blow these men as trees ; 
Strip off their leaves, and crash their branches down ; 
Work any ruin, only make us free. 

A person is heard pas sing in the street, singing. 

Song. 

The oak stands on the mountain-side, 

Deep-rooted, firm, of iron heart, 
And there the birds in shelter 'bide 

When storms come down and lightnings dart. 

He waves his arms, he calls the blast, — 
Come fight, and wrestle for the day, 

The brave old oak stands to the last, 
And hurls the howling winds away. 



46 Guatemozin. [act ii. 

Antonio. 
That song had some coincidence in it. 

Munoz. 
'Twas Farfan, more obsequious to Cortes 
Than is yon lake to lighten to the sun ; 
He sees the coming storm, and shelter prates. 
Yon hive of bees of Mexico is stirred, 
They buzz in wrathful councils ; go we there, 
Such multitudes of stingers, roaring waves 
Of poison will on us ! 
And go we must, 

Unless we use this pause in Tezcuco 
To rebel. Old Time is losing all his hair : 
That gray forelock of his that's grasped so often 
Grows thin of late — hairs drop like seconds. Ha ! 

Antonio. 
To-night we must complete our plan of action. 
'Tis time our friends were come. 

Munoz. 

And they are here. 
Enter Bamba, Jeronimo, Pedro, and Fernan, 
and other conspirators. 



scene i.] Guatemozin. 47 

Antonio. 
Comrades, your promptness presages your hearts ; 
Your stern demeanors great resolves foretell. 
'Tis Cortes' death ? 

Jeronimo. 

We are determined so. 
Our wrongs composed become in us resolves 
As such ingredients must make ; good things 
We mixed in his selfish pot till they have soured. 
We sold our patrimonies, gave the gold 
And our most cheerful service to this cause ; 
And what is brewed? wounds, rags, hungers, and 

thirsts. 
Only our lives are left; he hazards these 
As if they were no more than dice he rattles 
To throw for fortune. 

Antonio. 
Then act ere they be cast. 
Delay confesses weakness, 'tis the pause 
For strength that comes between the lifted sword 
Of weary fighter and his trembling stroke — 
The time his foeman takes to run him through. 
Success all hangs on Cortes' instant death ; 
While Cortes lives rebellion is betrayed. 



48 Guatemozin. [act ii. 

Bamba. 

We must be circumspect ; we know how bold 

And cunning Cortes is. I served with him 

When you, Antonio, and others here 

Obeyed Narvaez' lead. Our deadly foes, 

Ye landed on these shores, a thousand 'gainst 

Barely three hundred men, to steal away 

Our infant enterprise — a goodly babe 

We cradled on our shields. Attacked by night, 

We were to you the prodigies of dreams ; 

With nightmared limbs ye stood till morn revealed 

Our scant array with hardships overworn, 

When, fired with shame, ye showed to rise against 

Our victory, an easy thing to do ; 

But Cortes, by his arts, you captives made 

To do his will. That was a victory. 

How gross become our arms when, by mere force 

Of will and skilful move upon your fears 

And hopes, ye did that willingly which else 

Was not in bloody battle to compel. 

Antonio. 

We were cajoled, beaten with promises: 
Sugar of words sweetened the bitter thing. 



scene i.] Guatemozin. 49 

Pedro. 
Where is the gold he promised us ? 

Jeronimo. 

In the eye, 
Pedro, as much as thou canst carry there 
And see ; or in the ear, and wisdom hear. 

Antonio. 
Cortes is desperate : he knows escape 
Lies only in a conquest of this land, 
And that we know to be impossible. 
Usurper, thief, the foe of every right, 
Success alone will sheath th' avenging sword, 
Less swings it with a doubly vengeful stroke ; 
Failure, that worst of sins, revenges wrong. 
Ours is no case like his, we can return 
Now, ere too late, to Spain. 

Jeronimo. 

Antonio, 
None should be here but those with hearts like thine. 

Bamba. 
I am with you : think not my caution meant 
Half-hearted fellowship. 

4 



50 Guatemozin. [act ii. 

Antonio. 
Comrades, attend, 
I have a plan, and beg your judgment on 't ; 
If fault there be, your wisdom for a better. 
We will a packet bear to Cortes, when 
At table he and his friends unwary sit, 
Purport despatches instant, just arrived, 
All rushing in as if to hear the news ; 
And as he reads, another message we, 
With poniards, will inscribe upon his heart 
To spell in purgatory. Cortes dead, 
We speedily, with bloody daggers raised, 
Will run, our eager voices clamorous 
Of liberty and home, and bid all see 
The blood of tyrant Cortes slain for them. 

Jeronimo. 
I see no fault in it ; dost thou, Muiioz ? 

Muftoz. 
None : it is clear as day of spectral doubts. 

Bamba, at the window. 
The storm is past ; no rain has fallen ; calm, 
The moon, sole mistress of the dewy air, 



scene i.] Guatemozin. 51 

Illumes the night. {Aside.') I weary of this plot. 
{Aloud.) I shiver; it grows cold. 

Antonio, to Bamba. 

Come hither, let 
A daring spirit chafe thy blood to warmth. 

Pedro. 

Who joins with us ? I am reluctant till 
I know their edge and temper. 

Antonio, showing a paper. 

Read this list ; 
The names of many Cortes trusts are there. 

Pedro, after reading. 
Ah ! this assures us. 

Bamba. 

Friends, I must retire : 
I still am servitor of recent wounds, 
And they command to rest. 

Antonio. 

You are not well ; 
But rest thyself, we need thy trusty sword. 

Exit Bamba. 



'52 Guatemozin. [act 11. 

Munoz, to Antonio. 
Art sure Bamba is trusty ? 

Antonio. 

Ay ; he lacks 
Only the nerves of health ; his heart is ours. 

Munoz. 
We all are ready, — when are we to strike ? 

Jeronimo. 
Strike now ; to-night. 

Antonio. 

That is impossible ; 
We first must send a message to our friends, 
And fix a time when all shall come together. 

Munoz. 

That can be done to-night ; to-morrow, then, 
Let it be done. 

Antonio. 

What say you, comrades? 



scene i.] Guatemozin. 53 

All. 

Ay. 

Antonio. 

Then let us part, I will inform the rest 
Our plan, and all the very time to act, 
When liberty shall hear our daggers knock 
And ope her doors to us. Jeronimo, 
Fernan, and Pedro, ye will tarry here, 
And aid me in this work. 

Conspirators, going out. 
Good-night. 

Antonio. 

Good-night. 
Exeunt all except Antonio, Jeronimo, Fernan, 
and Pedro. 



54 Guatemozin, [act ii. 



SCENE II.— TEZCUCO. 

The same night. In front of Ramon's quarters, 
A table set for drinking, lighted by a flambeau. 
The moon is shining on a part of the scene. 

Enter, from within, Ramon, Farfan, and Panfilio. 

Ramon. 
Be seated, friends. 

They sit down ; then Ramon, holding up a bottle : 
Farfan, your glass, and yours, 
Panfilio. After filling all round, holding up his own. 

See ye that sleeping flame, 
Unbottled light : old Xeres brings the sun 
Of Spain to warm us. They drink, 

Panfilio. 

It takes me home again. 



Who loiters ? 
None. 



Farfan. 
Ramon. 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 55 

Farfan. 
Here are four seats, four cups, 
And but we three. 

Ramon. 
A fashion I was taught 
At home. They are the chance guest's seat and cup. 

Enter Bamba. 

Ramon, to Bamba. 
Wilt thou, to honor us, sit at our board? 

Bamba. 
I will ; but truly you more honor me. 

Panfilio. 
Ramon, thy custom has some hazard in *t. 

Ramon. 
Whoever comes, him must I ask to eat. 

Bamba. 
What do ye mean ? 

Panfilio. 
Thou hast the chance guest's seat, 
Another might have come and been unwelcome. 



56 Guatemozin. [act il 

Ramon. 
This custom lends to my sincerity 
Nothing, Bamba, of truth, if none had been 
Thou welcome art. 

Bamba. 
'Tis a fair courtesy. 

Ramon. 
There is a story of my ancestor. 
One day he dined in state, his table brave 
With plate, rich viands, wines the costliest, 
His guests in silks and velvets. Every seat 
Save one, the chance guest's, filled, when at the door 
A beggar craved for alms. My great-grandsire 
Bade him be seated in the vacant chair, 
A wan and weary man, with naked feet, 
And clothed in rags : strange guest for such a feast. 
The guests, amazed, drew back their silken selves, 
As if they feared to soil their splendid robes. 
His trembling hands spilled on the cloth the wine 
Ere he had tasted it ; he crumbed the bread, 
And left it on his plate, too weak to eat, 
All while he not so much as raised his eyes. 
At last he rose, and when he reached the door 
He turned and looked upon his empty seat, 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 57 

And then was gone. All looked, — a golden cup 
Filled to the brim with wine, a wafer on 
A golden plate, stood at the chance guest's seat. 
They say it was our Lord, who did not need 
Our bread, but gave his body bread for us. 

Panfilio. 
A monkish legend. 

Ramon. 

Nay, I had it from 

My father; also, it is handed down, 

And I confirm it by one instance proved. 

What man or woman fills our chance guest's seat 

Thenceforth, as if inspired direct from heaven, 

Must lead a better life. This knave was rich, 

Extortionate, and proud ; he gave his goods 

To feed the poor, returned to every one 

What was his due, and died a holy monk. 

Farfan. 
Surely Bamba is caught in Heaven's trap. 

Panfilio, calling. 
Bamba ! 

Panfilio, to the others. 
By all the saints, it works on him ! 
His eyes, inturned, look on a memory. 



58 Guatemozin. [act ii. 

Ramon, to Bamba. 
Bamba ! 

To the others. He faints ; give him a cup of wine. 
Touching him. Bamba ! 

Bamba, starting to his feet. 
O holy Jesu, look not on me ! 
I am — you stare at me ! What did I say ? 
Nothing? I am not well yet of my wounds. 
Good friends, my mind is weak of late, and all — 
No matter. Did I say aught ? Fool, fool ! Forgive 
Me, friends ; you see I rave. I must to bed. 
My fever has returned, and fills my veins 
With misery. 

Ramon. 
Thou canst not go alone ? 

Bamba. 
Alone ! alone ? no ; not alone. Panfilio offers. 

Not thou, 
Panfilio. Ay; 'lone. (Staggering.} You see I walk 
With steady steps. Ramon, thou wilt excuse. 

Ramon. 
Ay, thou art sick. 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 59 

Panfilio. 
Thy strength is traitor to 

Thy will. Let 

Bamba. 
Traitor? I a traitor? Oh ! 
Thou shalt not say it with impunity, 
Though I be shadow of my former self. 
Draw. 

He draws his sword; the others arise, and do the 
same. 

Bamba. 
{Striking at Panfilio.) That, and that. 
Ramon. 
Panfilio, hold ! hold ! 
Bamba is crazed ; do but defend thyself. 

Bamba. 
Oh, madness ! Exit Bamba, rushing off. 

Panfilio. 
Shall I after him? 

Ramon. 

No, no ; 
'Twould cross him to no good. Best let him go 
To cool alone. We must not mar with strife 



60 Guatemozin. [act ii. 

Our peaceful ease, the sweet vacation war's 
Rough school allows, the rest that strengthens us 
For sternest work. Sit down again, and let 
The clouding dust of evil passions sink, 
And leave the crystal of our former selves. 
Come drink success to Cortes, it is near. 

Farfan, after all drinking. 
Things go apace, the ships at last are launched ; 
We soon will be in Mexico again. 

Panfilio. 
'Tis wonderful, think on't, that dreadful night 
We fled from there. It was the blackest night 
That ever quenched with clouds the light of stars. 
I had to feel my foe before 1 struck, 
Fearing he was a friend. We got so mixed, 
'Tween strokes and prayers I fought, and hell was there 
Without its fires to minish horror with 
Foreseen destruction ; 'twas above, below; 
This side, that side, everywhere ; shrinking, stopping, 
Turning, as thought spun round from fear to fear, 
I reached the land. That fatal causeway comes 
At times across my mind, ever the same 
Mad, jumbled terror. Let us drink again, 
It has spoiled the wine I had. 



scene ii.] Gnatemozin. 61 

Ramon. 

We had one hope, 
That to escape, for conquest was to us 
Impossible. We knew not Cortes then. 
These ships we launched to-day, in distant forests 
Hewn, borne by willing friends o'er leagues of moun- 
tains ; 
A labor Hercules might have sweat o'er, 
Cortes, more god-like, finishes. 

Farfan. 

He is 
Of perfect force ; a fortress of expedients. 
I marvel at him. No misfortune daunts, 
But strengthens more, for that as yet has broke 
Only our swords, but not his head, which seems 
To rally more, as other help is lost, 
An army forth invincible of plans, 
To counterplot with fate. He fails of nothing. 

Panfilio. 

And yet we have skulkers and cowards here 
That murmur 'gainst him. 



62 Guatemozin. [act ii. 

Farfan. 

Friends, draw near to me ; 
We might be heard. You know Antonio? 

They converse in an undertone. Re-enter Bamba, 
at one side. 

Bamba. 
Thrice have I stood before his door, and thrice 
The hand I raised to gain admission knocked, 
Not pleading there, but on my heart with terrors 
That come between my penitence and shame. 
I can confess to heaven, but to man, — 
We are too much alike ; that which I fear 
Is by that likeness made a judge most harsh ; 
Condemns without defence, for what defence 
Has conscience 'gainst itself? I must confess. 
O misery, to be entangled thus ! 
Will I not be the means to foil this plot ? 
Take courage his, Cortes', deliverer. 
My crime destroys my manhood ! There's no lie 
More false than that we lie with to ourselves. 

Exit Bamba. 

Farfan. 

Did ye not hear a noise ? I thought I saw 
A haggard face instant in yon moon-ray. 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 63 

Ramon. 
'Twas nothing. Come, Panfilio, a toast. 

Panfilio. 
Here's to the wish that nearest is our hearts; 
May it a full cup be, and drunken empty. 

They drink. 
Panfilio, holding the cup bottom upwards. 
See, every drop is down ; would ye hear mine ? 

Ramon. 
Some castle in New Spain, you fancy real. 

Panfilio. 
The only castles in the air are clouds, 
And their most wholesome waters nourish us, 
And pleasure life, so shall my wish prevail. 

Ramon. 
Some clouds rain skyward, fade into the blue. 

Panfilio. 
A sign that promises no storms are near. 
I shall obtain a great estate by grant 



64 Guatemozin. [act ii. 

For service rendered ; with my share of gold 
Build me a country-seat ; buy slaves to bear 
Life's cares away, while I enjoy its pleasures. 

Farfan. 
Thy blood will sleep ; eager old age will leave 
The beaten path, hobbling, cross-cut thy life. 
Not so with me; when this campaign is o'er 
I shall be off to newer fields of glory. 

Ramon. 
Brave words, brave heart. 

Panfilio. 
The wine has gone to sleep, 
And so should we. 

Farfan, rising. 
The morrow brings the march, 
Perhaps a battle-field. 

Panfilio, rising. 

Your arm, Farfan. 

Ramon. 
Stay, comrades, welcome goes not with the wine. 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 65 

Farfan. 
Panfilio, we are uncourteous. 

Panfilio. 

Nay, 
We do not go because the wine is gone. 

Ramon. 
I blame you not. Good-night. 

Severally going. 

Good-night. Good-night. 



SCENE III.— TEZCUCO. 

The same night. A rooin in Cortes' quarters. 

Enter Cortes. 

Cortes. 
The earth's calm confidence of strength disdains 
The lightnings, storms, and tremors of her frame 
That harm the unrevengeful hills and vales : 
Content to hide her hurt with fruitfulness, 

5 



66 Guatemozin. [act ii* 

And win redeeming beauty from a wound ; 

So I would turn defeat to victory. 

They thought us gods, allegiance gave our king, 

They decked our arms, and crowned our heads with 

flowers. 
Were we deceived ? Was it for sacrifice ? 
Or did contact reveal humanity 
Ungodly, and credulity revenge 
Itself with our overthrow? That saddest night 
A harping memory lives. I strove for power 
By peaceful arts, that leave no rankling wounds 
To linger civil wars ; the sword unsheathed 
Must never bloodless to the scabbard turn. 
This dynasty will not let go its power 
With every fortress levelled to the plain ; 
Its armies mown as by a pestilence, 
Men's fierce and obdurate hearts must broken be, 
Their wills be beaten down, their hopes made fail, 
And all the bolts and bars of custom broken ; 
Society disrupt, its members cast, 
Like bursting waters, 'broad, and then reborn, 
The State may rise, and only know the past 
An alien chronicle, so changed and new 
Its outer powers and inner potencies. 

Knocking; heard at the door. 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 67 

Who knocks? It was the wind. Ah ! I will strike 

With mailed hand on Fame till every bolt 

And hinge shall shake within their portal seats. 

If there is left to man in all this world 

Of unrewarded worth, illusive hopes, 

And where success is like a caged eagle 

Pining his native freedom, losing strength 

And beauty, one desire that's near fulfill'd, 

It is to stand before the eyes of men, 

As he who laid his sword within the warp 

Of destiny, and held it woven there 

Eternal as Orion's starry blade, 

Which out no arm may draw, or it will cut 

A gap in nature, high heaven's law be broke, 

And chaos rule the darkened void again. 

There is knocking again at the door. 
It was a knock, and something strange in it ; 
I must not be unwary. 

Drawing his sword and opening the door. 
Enter, friend. 

Enter Bamba. 

Bamba, seeing the sword, and falling on his knees. 
Mercy, great Cortes ; slay me not. O, mercy ! 



68 Guatemozin. [act ii. 

Cortes. 
Pshaw, man, I was but looking to my arms, 
Rough used of late, what need of armorer's skill 
They had. What means this shaking of thy limbs? 
Thy pallid, trembling lips? Arise and speak. 

Bamba, rising. 
I fear myself, and thee, and everything ; 
I have been sick, and tortured by the wounds 
I got the night we fled from Mexico. 
Rememberest thou the final struggle on 
The fatal causeway ; in the press of men 
Foe mixed with friend, and on the slippery edge 
We fought, a stalwart warrior seized thy foot, 
I stooping, with a blow, cut off his arm ? 
That stoop lost me my fence, and I was wounded. 

Cortes. 
Nay, the night was dark. We oft in peril were. 

Bamba. 
I hoped thou hadst remembered it. Ah me ! 

Cortes. 
What ails thee, man ? 



scene ill.] Guaternozin. 69 

Bamba, again kneeling. 

Mercy ! I have been sick, 
Let this decrepit thing, my body, tell. 
What wonder that my mind and heart gave way, 
And I reviled the poor reward I had, 
And longed for home with no way there to go ! 
When thus dispirited, there came a man 
Who harped upon my sufferings, greater woes 
That were to come, and step by step I was led 
To join with him and others to {pausing.) 

CORTKS. 

To what ? 
Conspiracy? Speak, sir. 

Bamba, rising. 

Ay, to conspire 
Thy death, that we to Cuba might return. 
To-morrow they will come. 

CORTftS. 

Who is this man? 

Bamba, 
Antonio de Villafana. 



fo Gnatemozin. [act ii. 

Cortes, calling. 

Ho, there, 
Within. {To Bamba.) I will attend 
thee presently. 

Enter a soldier. 
{To the soldier?) Go, bid the Captain of the Guard, 

in my name, 
Bring here four Alguazils, and wait my will. 
Be quick, and let thy feet the silence chide 
Of sleepy night with clamorous speed. 

Exit soldier. 
( To Bamba. ) Come, 
I will examine you concerning this, 
In privacy, with closer scrutiny. 

Exeunt Cortes and Bamba. 



SCENE IV.— TEZCUCO. 

The same night. A street. 
Enter Istrisuchil, and other Tezcucans, his followers. 

ISTRISUCHIL. 

We march to-morrow ; Mexico will fall, 
And I be firmly throned. I am no king, 



scene iv.] Gnatemozin. 71 

Forsooth, usurper, traitor; by this arm 
I took more from my father's loins than all 
My brothers ; I am king, and by my might 
I'll write my title in that city's ruins. 

Enter Tunal, passing. 

A Tezcucan. 

My lord, the slave that fled from Mexico 
Is passing. 

Istrisuchil. 
Call him to me. 

The Tezcucan, to Tunal. 

Whither so fast ? 
Stay thou, the Lord Istrisuchil would speak 
With thee. 

Tunal approaches them. 

Istrisuchil. 
Thou wert the slave of Prince Tizoc ? 

Tunal. 
I was, my lord. 



J2 Guatemozin. [act ii. 

ISTRISUCHIL. 

What caused this enmity 
Between Tizoc and Tacuba? 

Tunal. 

The scowls 
Of Prince Tizoc I heard commented on 
Among his followers : those of his house 
Had heard him when alone, as was his wont, 
Mutter and talk ; they said he was in love 
With Princess Acalan ; that Tacuba 
Was favored more than he. 

Istrisuchil. 

Ha ! ha ! my sister ! 
Thy sparkling eyes could ruin Mexico 
If all our foes would fall in love with thee, 
And fight among themselves. Saw you my brother 
Coanaco ? 

Tunal. 
He was with us. 

Istrisuchil. 

At Chalco? 

Tunal. 
Ay. 



scene iv.] Guatetnozin. 73 

ISTRISUCHIL. 

Ha ! and I not there. How did he look — 
Gloomy ? 

TUNAL. 

He did, my lord, 

ISTRISUCHIL. 

Ha ! ha ! and pale ? 

TUNAL. 

He was, my lord. 

ISTRISUCHIL. 

Ha ! ha ! and did he gnaw 
His lip this way ? 

Tunal. 
He did, my lord. 

ISTRISUCHIL. 

Ha! ha! 
I know Coanaco : that was his way 
When we were children, and I took his toys, 
And beat him, if he fought to get them back. 
{Going.') Come on, you shall be of my followers, 
And free from this day forth. Poor Coanaco ! 



74 Guatemozin. [act ii. 

SCENE V.— TEZCUCO. 

The same night. Antonio's quarters. 

Antonio, Jeronimo, Pedro, and Fernan sitting at 
a table. 

Jeronimo. 

'Tis settled then Antonio shall give 
The packet, and the signal when to act, 
And we will gather round like flies a spot 
Of honey, and strike. 

Antonio. 

Hist ! What noise is that ? 
Enter Cortes suddenly, with officers and soldiers. 

Cortes. 

Arrest these men, save Villafana, all ; 
With him I wish a private conversation ; 
Detail a force to guard the three to prison. 

Jeronimo, Pedro, and Fernan are arrested, and 
taken from the room. 



scene v.] Guatemozin. 75 

Cortes {to Antonio). 
Antonio de Villafana 

Antonio takes a paper from the table, and tries to 
swallow it ; Cortes seizes him ; they struggle. 

Yield, 
Thou villain, yield that paper, spit it out ; 
I'll have it though I rive thy trunk in twain, 
And tear it from thy belly. 

Cortes obtains the paper. 

Cortes {to soldiers). 

Seize this man ! 
The Alguazils and soldiers arrest Antonio. 

Cortes {to Antonio). 
Antonio de Villafana, I, 
Before these gentlemen, and officers 
Empowered to execute the laws, do charge 
That thou most foully hast conspired our ruin, 
Enticed more worthy men to join thy plot. 
Thou hast been taken in the very act ; 
Yet speak, thou shalt not be condemned unheard. 

Antonio. 
You have the proof; what need I answer thee? 



76 Guatemozin. [act ii. 

Cortes. 
He has confessed ; haste ye, and hale him hence ; 
Let him be shriven, and his peace be made 
With heaven, for ere to-morrow's sun shall rise 
His peace with earth must be. Let not his life 
Beyond its absolution last one hour. 

Exeunt all but Cortes. 

That precious list ! Who are my enemies? 
{Opening the paper.*) Mouthed with that villain's slime. 

He reads. 
Now, never more 
Let face of man be fair, and outward sign 
Of what his heart contains, since treachery 
And quick ingratitude have changed their fronts, 
And meet us daily, look us in the eyes 
As honesty itself. This man I trusted, 
And this, and this, — and in such company, 
The offal of the camp. Some feared, some hated, 
Some loved. Oh, love, thou juggler of the heart ! 
How can I rise above calamity ? 
To lose these men would maim of limb the body 
Of which I am the head. Is there no cure, 
Unless I lame myself; no folly, trait 
Of human nature, simple of the heart, 
To bring return of health ? {Pausing in meditation.') 



scene v.] Gautemozin. y/ 

There is a weakness 
That comes of knowledge, when we lack the means 
To do what reason 'proves, which wisdom warns 
Us to forego, whilst wrongs and righteous wrath 
Pursue the doubtful will to drive to it. 
A friend may be a fool, and thus a foe, 
A foolish enemy better than friend. 
To make my foe my friend I must deceive 
Him to believe he's trusted ; scrupulous, 
No word or sign betray I know the deep 
That is betwixt us, which fair words and trusts, 
But seeming fair and trusting, must o'erbridge. 
He knows the gulf, but thinks I know it not, 
And chuckles at my folly. {Pausing in thought.*) 

They are mine ; 
I will conceal my knowledge of their crime, 
Declare Antonio alone in guilt; 
The others, freed from fear of instant death, 
And eager to escape suspicion, will 
Back to their duty ardently. {Tearing the paper.) 

It is torn, 
But not the record written on my mind, 
Nor shall they go unwatched from this day forth. 
In duty's ways good habits may return, 
And treason be a thing to horror them. 



78 Gnatemozin. [act ii. 



SCENE VI— TEZCUCO. 

Early dawn. An open square. Antonio is seen 
hanging from a beam fastened in an upper 
window. 

Enter Munoz. 
Munoz. 

O, such a night of horrors have I passed ! 
Awake, asleep, again awake and asleep ; 
The native hold upon my will all gone 
In riotous rebellion of my dreams. 
Rebellion, treason, — how these words become 
The catch-words of my mind. I have a qualm 
From over-eating ; treason is at court ; 
In sooth, base coin in the treasury ; 
King Reason is dethroned, and all my wits 
Are regicides. I dreamed that I was hanged ; 
My neck is stiff of it. Ha ! What is that ? 
By the sword of Damocles, that spider dream 
Has left its cobwebs in my brain ; or no, — 
It is Antonio ! Antonio ! 
Antonio is hanged ! and we are lost. 
They come to seize me — no, a terror cried 



scene vi.] Guateniozin. 79 

In m' ears, they come ! I am all desperation, 
I must away, and warn the rest of danger. 

Exit Muno2T. 
Enter Jeronimo, Pedro, and Fernan, released from 
p7'ison. 

Pedro. 
No clue was found, or why were we discharged ? 

Fernan. 

And when the jailer curtly made us free, 
So certain was I that he came to hale 
Me to the judge, my prison was a home 
From which he forced me ; even now I fear 
My senses lie. 

Jeronimo, seeing Antonio. 
Look there ! 

Pedro. 

Who has been hanged ? 

Fernan. 
It is Antonio ! 

Jeronimo. 

O, horrible 
Extinguishment, and utter darkness come ! 



80 Guatemozin. [act ii. 

Fernan. 
Yon whirlwind's sheaf, must we be garnered there ! 

Pedro. 
We are distraught ; it cannot be. 

Jeronimo. 

It is, 
And we are free, and there our secret is. 

Pedro. 
Emblazoned to the day ! 

Jeronimo. 

Yon charnel-house, 
The skull where dead men's thoughts sepulchred are, 
Our secret buries ; or why were we freed ? 

Fernan. 
Away, and let us tell the others what 
Befell last night ; we must be on our guard. 

Exeunt all. 
Re-enter Munoz, and enter other Conspirators with 

him. 



O, this is hell ! 



scene vi.] Gnatemozin. 81 

Munoz. 
See, there he hangs. 

A Conspirator. 

Where did you say? 

Munoz. 

See, there. 

Conspirator. 

Second Conspirator. 

How can we save ourselves? 

Munoz. 
O curse the paltering fool ; he might have known 
That instant action should have followed thought ; 
The winds will bruit abroad such secrets, being 
The servitors of heaven. 

Enter Jeronimo, Pedro, and Fernan, cautiously. 

Jeronimo, in a subdued voice. 

Hist, Munoz, 
Munoz. 

Munoz, answering. 
We all are friends. 

6 



82 Guatemozin. [act il 

Jeronimo, pointing. 

See there — see there, 
Yon dreadful exclamation point of fear 
To us ! 

Munoz. 
See it? I've gazed on it so long 
There is a hanging man before my eyes 
Wherever I may look. I see one now 
Upon thee, man. 

Jeronimo. 
Pluck up thy courage, things 
Are not so bad. Last night we were with him, 
When Cortes came with soldiers, seized us three 
And had us prisoned, and this morn released 
Without a question asked or reason given. 
We come and find Antonio is hanged. 
Have we the more, or less, to fear from this? 

Munoz. 
O, this arouses my benumbed heart ! 
It bodes us well ; and all the evidence — 
If he were hanged for treason — must have been 
Wholly against himself; for never yet, 
Since Satan fell from heaven, has treason had 
A respite. 



scene vi.] Gnatemozin. 83 

Pedro. 

I cannot believe in safety. 

Munoz. 
I do, because it seems impossible. 
'Tis Luck. When all our calculations fail, 
This little rosy sprite, fat as a dumpling, 
And just as sensible as a lump of dough, 
Comes plump amongst us, and sets all a laughing. 
This will cause men to watch each other ; see 
To it ye cast in all suspicious eyes 
Pretentious dust of loyalty ; assume 
A careless mien, and cheer Antonio's doom. 

Jeronimo. 
You counsel well, and we must hold no tell-tale 
Intercourse. 

Munoz. 

Some one comes; away, away. 

{Exeunt all except Munoz.) 

Enter soldiers, and Munoz mingles with the crowd; 
then enter Farfan and Panfilio. 

Panfilio, to Farfan. 
You judged the traitor rightly. 



84 Guatemozin, [act ii. 

Farfan. 

Ay, he was 
Always a grumbler; treason grafts the best 
On such a stock. 

Panfilio. 

The gallows-tree is bare 
Of leaves and fruit ; at night, by darkness sunned, 
Fed by a drought of every worthy deed, 
A sapless branch has grown : a direful sum 
Of contradictions, yet reality. 

Soldier. 
Was he alone ? Surely one man is nothing. 

Farfan. 
He was alone \ Cortes has so announced. 

Panfilio. 
But others must have known 



Munoz, interrupting. 

Down with all traitors ! 



scene vi.] Guatemozin. 85 

Panfilio. 
Up by a rope, I say ; up by the neck. 

Farfan. 
Munoz, they tell me you are chosen one 
To serve aboard the ships. 

Munoz. 

Ay, that is my sore ; 
I have been drafted for a common sailor ; 
An old hidalgo ! I to pull at ropes, 
To smell of tar and pitch ! 



You trim your sails. 



Farfan. 

And yet, Munoz, 



Panfilio, to Munoz. 

Thy neck will pull a rope 
Some day, and spite thy hands, if thou rebelest. 

Enter Cortes. 
Cortes. 
Go, call Munoz to me. 

Munoz, turning away. 

He wants me. 



86 Giiaternozin. [act ii. 

Panfilio. 

Here 
He is. Munoz, the General. 

Munoz. 

I come. 
Munoz approaches, and salutes Cortes. 

Cortes. 
Take twenty men, and scout the country south 
Not more than seven leagues. Report to me 
With liberal haste, finding the enemy 
Are anywhere in force, what possible 
Menace there is to us. Be cautious, not 
Too bold; risk no encounter : they'll not dare 
Attack unless they are most strong in numbers ; 
Acquit thyself as worthy of my trust. 

Munoz. 
I will, I will ; if I neglect my duty, 
Then hang my treason there {pointing to Antonio). 

Exit Munoz. 
Cortes. 

Soldiers, we march 
On Mexico, and there awaits an empire 
Glorious as all our earthly wishes make ; 



scene vi.] Guatemozin. 87 

So broad that every several one of us, 
Without the elbow jostling of our rights, 
Or losing by another's gain of power, 
Can hold of office, rank, and wealth as much 
As his good sword can win. 

Soldiers, shouting. 

Long live our leader ! 

Cortes. 
We march to-day ; go to your companies. 



88 Guatemozin. [act hi. 



ACT III. 

SCENE I.— MEXICO. 

A room in the palace* A^alan and Queen Tecu- 
ichpo sitting by an open window. A^alan is work- 
ing on a piece of embroidery. 

A^alan, holding up the embroidery. 
There, it is done; and O, I am so glad ! 

Queen. 
Why did you tire ; it is so beautiful ! 
To see it grow, the nestling of thy hand, 
To be a radiant bird, were joy enough. 
This scarlet cardinal, with open beak, 
Darting to catch the gemmy bug, is life 
Caught in the mirror of thy tapestry, 
To fly unweariedly. 

AgALAN. 

Is it a fancy ? 
Is there not some suggestion in the bird 
To call my brother's face ? 



scene i.] Guatemozin. 89 

Queen. 



Ay. 



Istrisuchil's? 

AgALAN. 

Queen. 
From the beak, and cruel eye it comes. 



AgALAN. 

When nearly done I saw it, and I bore 
The tortures of the thoughts it moved in me 
As not beyond my strength ; they grow too great ; 
I give it thee ; take it away. 

Handing the embroidery to the Queen. 
He was 
My terror when a child, and never has 
His cruel boyhood softened in the man. 

Queen. 
Do not give way to gloom ; the time is near 
When Guatemozin will restore the throne 
Of Tezcuco its rightful king. Look thou 
Between the parting of neighboring walls, 
And see the placid lake ; its waters stop 
At Tezcuco ; were we upon some summit 



90 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

We might behold thy home. When parted from 
Our friends, to see them distant, know them safe, 
We, partly happy, wait until we meet. 

A^ALAN. 

Thither my eyes have daily turned, and looked 
So longingly. 

Queen. 
See yon strange and distant shapes, 
White spots upon the waves? I think they move. 

AgALAN. 

A boat would vanish there ; what can they be ? 

Queen. 
I fear they are our foes. 

A^ALAN. 

See ! see ! they move ! 
And widen like waterfowl flying out. 

Queen. 
They must be Spanish ships ; such Cortes built 
When he my father's guest was ; winged like birds, 
With sails the wind blew on, they swept along. 

Enter an Attendant. 



scene i.] Guatemozin. 91 

Attendant, to the Queen. 
The Prince Tizoc desires an interview. 

AgALAN. 

The Prince Tizoc. O, let me go. 

Queen. 

Nay, child, 
Thou must remain ; thou art unjust to him ; 
Let pardon hear the gentle argument 
Of hapless love. If he had loved thee less 
He would have had the greater calmness ; but 
It maddened him ; cruel is love outraged. 
{To Attendant.) Admit the Prince. 

Exit Attendant. 

A<;alan. 

Thy wishes are my laws ; 
Only what simple courtesy may grant, 
The stubborn injury of pride may yield. 

Enter Tizoc. 

Tizoc, to the Queen. 

{Kneeling.} Madam, a boon ; lama suppliant, 
An importuner of thy graciousness. 



92 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

Queen. 
If it infringe no duty, work no wrong, 
Nor burden foolishly my free consent, 
Thou hast it. 

Tizoc. 
Plead for me this injured Princess 
To pardon what my gross and treacherous pride, 
Dethroning me, my heart's own queen misruled 
To my disgrace and loss of her dear favor. 



That I have done. 



Queen. 

AgALAN. 

Prince, thou art false. 



Tizoc. 

Ay, false,- 
False to my happiness, but true to thee. 

AgALAN. 

Didst thou not publicly insult me? 

Tizoc. 

Would 
My tongue were palsied in my mouth ere I 
Had wronged thee. 



scene i.] Guatemozin. 93 

A^ALAN. 

'Tis in service of thy heart 
Thou wouldst be dumb, but full of evil thoughts, 
Like dammed waters, but the deeper for 't. 

Tizoc. 
My heart is torn away, and gone forever. 

A^ALAN. 

Then thou art heartless in professing it. 

Tizoc. 
What shall I say ? Madam, persuade her heart 
To gentleness. 

Queen. 

Dear Acalan, forgive. 
A smile is better than a frown for all : 
It even smoothes the wrinkles out of age, 
Makes fair the homeliest; and when 'tis thine 
It is the perfect finish of the face. 

Tizoc. 
Nay, frowns, by her prevailing loveliness, 
Are angry charms that torture while they dazzle. 



94 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

AgALAN. 

I could forgive, if I alone were harmed ; 
Thou art the enemy of Tacuba. 

Tizoc. 
But he believes me innocent, and so 
The king, and all the court, save you. 

Aqalan. 

Not now ; 
I may forgive, but cannot yet forget. 

An alarm is sounded. 

Queen, running to the window. 
The ships ! the ships ! and see our fleet of boats 
Does hide the water with their multitude : 
They go to meet them. 

Tizoc. 

Now the long delayed, 
But surely coming trial of our strength 
Is near. 

A^ALAN. 

And, Prince, thou shouldst be at thy post, 
Not hiding here. 



scene I.] Guatemozin. 95 

Tizoc. 

I go ; and none can say 

That Tizoc counts the purchase of old age 

To be desired above the life that death 

Exchanges glory on the battle-field. 

(Aside J) 
A siege within a siege : though fail the one, 

I'll stake my all the other shall be won. 

Exit Tizoc. 

Queen, to A^alan. 

Do you not feel a trembling like a chill 

To creep and make thy body insincere? 

Within our homes we hitherto have dwelt 

In peace, no sound of war has reached our ears : 

For we have only known its peaceful shows, 

The march of gaudy soldiers, and their songs 

Of triumph : now the battle's bloody fragments, 

The dead and wounded men, will fill our streets. 

To feel a constant dread uncertainty 

Of final victory, a fear of ruin, 

Our lives will be a restless misery. 

Ah me ! to live upon a battle-field. 

A^ALAN. 

I tremble, but no fear is in the tremor : 
The tender nestlings tremble in the wind, 



96 Guatemozin* [act hi. 

But not for fear; the watchful, anxious thought 
For those I love, and fate of things is pain, 
And weariness of heart. 

Queen. 

The penalty 
Of greatness is ours to bear. O ! that we — 
The king and I — some private subjects were, 
To know the troubles only proper to 
That station. I too private am to self, 
Too subject to my heart for these great cares 
That centre in a king, and make his will 
A nation's thought, a nation's wrongs his pain, 
The suffering that robs my right to him : 
I get no room in his filled heart. 

A^ALAN. 

Have care ; 
The king comes here. 

Enter Guatemozin. 

GUATEMOZIN. 

All's done that can be done ; 
Constant unto one purpose, as are roots 
That thread and lace the elemental mould, 
To find and draw up all the strength therein, 



scene i.] Guatemozin. 97 

Have I, to thoughtless minds, the idle flower 
That blooms upon the palm of state, the crown, 
And ornament of all, been through the crude 
And hidden substance of the nation's strength ; 
Nothing so small but I have treasured it. 
If anything *s amiss, 'tis in this head, 
Not in my heart. They come; away reserve : 
I leave the school-room of my cabinet, 
Where I have conned my task to weariness, 
To breathe again free air of battles. Ah ! 
'Tis like to happiness. 

Queen. 

Art thou so happy ; 
Glad of this war? 

Guatemozin. 

Thou understandest not. 
Have you not noted how, since I am king, 
What patient labors I have striven with, 
O'ertaxing mind and body, lest that which 
Is necessary be overlooked, and we 
Made fail for want of preparation ; what 
So full I have been of, that I have robbed 
My heart of its own joys, losing myself, 
That others may be saved from lasting woe. 
Wilt thou not pardon my neglect of thee? 

7 



98 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

Queen. 
I pardon all for one kind word. 

Guatemozin, pointing to the window. 

See yonder; 
The people crowd the roofs, and wave their arms, 
And gaze upon the lake. The enemy — 

A great shout is heard ; all run to the window. 

Queen. 
Look ! horror ! look ! 

A^alan. 
They run us down ; like knives 
They cut our boats in twain. 

Queen. 

The water *s full 
Of drowning soldiers. 

Guatemozin. 

Ha ! we are o'ermatched ; 
I must draw off our fleet, and let them land, 

And then 

Exit Guatemozin. 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 99 

Queen, embracing A^alan. 

O, Acalan, didst thou not see 
Those in the water ? 

AGALAN. 

I cannot look at them. 

cruel men ! Ah ! who have died to-day ? 

1 must go hear if Tacuba was there. 



SCENE II— MEXICO. 

A street of the city. Enter Aztecs, flying, and disappear. 
Enter Munoz. 

Munoz. 

Fly, fly, — the wind my whirling sword-strokes make 
Bloweth these mortal leaves out of my reach ; 
My legs with chasing them have all the fight. 

Re-enter Aztecs. 
Now stand, ye knaves, and give my arm a turn, 
My sword a run. I have you. Ha ! 

They fight; Munoz is wounded ; placing his back 
to a wall, he covers his body with a shield, and 
offers at them with his sword. 



ioo Guatemozin. [act hi. 

Munoz. 

Come on ; 
Old Munoz to a thousand of you, though 
Wounded I am. 

The Aztecs rush at him ; he offers at them, and 
they fall back. 

Munoz. 
Though stricken to his knees, 
Ye fear the old bull's horns. Think ye I'll wait, 
And tamely bleed to death? Nay; on your spears, 
And more shall keep me company. San Pedro ! 

He runs on them, and dies fighting. 
Enter Cortes and forces. 

Cortes. 
San Jago ! and at them. Lay on ! Lay on ! 

They fight, the Aztecs retreat, and exeunt the 
Spaniards pursuing. 

Re-enter Cortes. 

Cortes, approaching Munoz' s body. 

And so, at last, old Muiioz, thou art dead : 
A sum of villanies most strangely mixed 
With virtues ; such as joined to noble aims 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 101 

Are stuff of heroes. Aims tell on us all : 
Some shoot the stars, some splinter on a stone. 
He was the wordy brawler of the camp, 
As vicious as a kicking horse ; a gambler 
And a buffoon ; while sure to brave the most 
Of peril, hunger, and fatigue without 
Complaint, yet in the calm of plenteous ease 
To fret with turbulence and yearn for treason, 
There was more mischief in his idle hours 
Than in the business of a thrifty knave. 
Ay, treason : thou wert with Antonio 
Most traitorous ; ye both have served me well. 
Antonio I hanged, death's warning board, 
To mark a dangerous road, and thou hast fought 
Bravely for me ; now that account is squared. 
It was shrewd work ; I never did more wisely : 
The rest will serve as well ; better for me 
They stop a breach than wastefully be hanged. 

Enter Istrisuchil and Tezcucan Allies. 

Istrisuchil, to Cortes. 

Where are these cowards ? Must we fight with air, 
And blow against the wind ? March we to blunt 
Our spears like picks on walls and empty houses ; 
To wait while others fight, our valorous 



102 Guatemozin, [act hi. 

And hungry appetites edged o'er the feast 
That others surfeit of? Show us the fight, 
Or home we go, and send to place us boys 
To study war. 

Sounds of distant strife come feebly. 

Cortes. 

Have patience ; you shall fight 
Enough to sweeten peace. Dost thou not hear? 
This errant breeze has wafted to our ears 
The battle still is hot. 

Istrisuchil. 

Ay, and let us blow 
Its roaring flames until they lick the skies. 

Enter Messenger. 

Messenger. 

Succor our forces, or the day is lost, 

We are beset by such a multitude. 

So desperate that, though we slay a man 

At every stroke, we cannot drive them back ; 

But on our foremost files they roll, and crush 

Us with their numbers. 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 103 

Cortes. 
Hark ! the battle nears. 

Messenger. 
I saw our forces last, a narrow ribbon, 
That fluttered in a wind of men, they swayed 
Among the enemy. 

Cortes. 

Istrisuchil, 
Now on, and prove thyself a valiant man. 

Exeunt all. 



SCENE III.— MEXICO. 

The great square of the city. Guatemozin, 
Tacuba, Oyot, and Culquil. The Aztec 
Soldiers are marching by in the direction of 
the battle, which is outside; the Spaniards are 
striving to enter the square. 

Tacuba. 

Your majesty, they are in full retreat ; 

At first they drove our forces back and reached 



104 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

The middle of the square ; then we let loose ; 
All thought of life was lost in direst rage. 
We pressed so closely on we could not strike, 
But pushed them out ; they broke, and still 
they fly. 

Guatemozin, to soldiers. 
On, on to victory ! Strike at their faces ; 
There all the senses come to learn of you, 
And let the lesson be blind eyes, deaf ears, 
Dumb mouths, death, death. 

The Spanish trumpets sound a charge. 
Ye falter ; stand to it ; 
Yield not a foot of ground. 

Tacuba, to Guatemozin. 
Our impetus 
Hath spent itself, we waver whether to stand 
Or to be beaten back. Shall I bring up 
All our reserves, and rest our fortunes on 
The final struggle ? 

Guatemozin. 

Ay ; hasten, or lost 

Is all we gained. 

Exit Tacuba. 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 105 

Guatemozin, to soldiers. 

Soldiers, would ye be slaves? 
See wives and children slaves ? Turn back for love 
Of earth and hope of heaven. Follow your king, 
And charge them home. For Mexico strike ! strike ! 

Oyot. 
Your majesty, you must retire ; the fight 
Is coming near ; all hope is buoyed on 
Thy safety. 

Guatemozin. 
What! do ye command your king? 

Culquil. 
To have thee king and not a bloody corse, 
And all our fortunes dying in your wounds. 

Guatemozin. 
O ! that I could uncrown my head to show 
These men their duty ! Turn, ye cowards. O ! 
That Tacuba and the reserves were here ! 

Oyot. 

Away, away. 



io6 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

GUATEMOZIN. 

What fell and loitering 
Accident stays their march ? 

Exeunt Guatemozin, Oyot, and Culquil. 

Enter the Spanish Forces and Tezcucan 
Allies, driving the Mexicans. Istrisuchil 
is fighting by the side of Cortes. 

Exeunt Mexicans. 

Cortes. 

Blow the recall, 
We go no farther, night is in the eve ; 
If days were longer we could conquer now, 
But wild confusion lurks about our arms 
If night delays us here. 

While the Spaniards are forming in the square, 
enter Tizoc, Oyot, Culquil, and other Mex- 
icans on the roofs of houses, and renew the 
fight, hurling down stones and javelins. 

Cortes. 

Form in your ranks, 
And backward move, slowly, move as one man. 



scene in.] Gnatemozin. 107 

Oyot, from the house-top. 
Ye treacherous Tezcucans, we slay you, — 
Our hearts have done it. Curses, curses heap 
You deeper thrice than dead men's bones entombed, 
Our love will never live again. 

Culquil. 

Ingrates 
With beastly hearts, breakers of pledges, deaf 
To every call of honor, with ears as wide 
As gates for villany to enter in, 
We'll make your bodies fields to grow up spears. 
A loyal fruit that all may eat and fear 
Your treason. 

The Spaniards, having partly retreated from the 
square, enter, Aztecs pressing after them. 

Cortes. 
They feel us yield, and jump like springs 
Against us. Hold, hold down. Forward, and hold 
Them till our rear is clear. 

The Aztecs are driven back again. 

Oyot, pointing. 

Look ! look ! the traitor ! 
Yon is Istrisuchil. 



108 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

Tizoc, calling. 

Istrisuchil, 
Thou baby-man, sucker of Spanish paps, 
Thy blood would soil my spear. I'll send my slaves 
To slaughter thee with bills and pruning-hooks. 

Istrisuchil. 
Ha ! Prince Tizoc, high walls make naughty tongues. 
Exeunt Spaniards and Allies; Istrisuchil 
shaking his spear threateningly at Tizoc. 

Enter Aztecs. 



SCENE IV.— MEXICO. 

A street of the city. Before a battle. 

Enter Cortes, Alderete, Panfilio, Jeronimo, Pedro, 
Fernan, and other soldiers. 

Cortes. 
Against my judgment, but to yours, I yield. 
This enterprise is doubly on thy care ; 
The common peril and thy credit's loss 
If failure comes of it. 



scene iv.] Gnatemozin. 109 

Alderete. 

We cannot fail. 
Think of our hardships, night and day encamped 
Without a shelter ; our bed the miry ground ; 
Our tents down-pouring clouds; our food mildewed 
And sour ; our clothing wet like fishes' coats, 
And countless small annoyances that pain ; 
The stinging mites, harder than greater ones 
Because they will not rest. Were we like storks 
This swamp would be our home ; but, being men, 
We love dry ground. 

Soldiers. 
Ay ; house us in the city. 

Cortes. 
Though hard, 'tis safer here ; but better it, 
Alderete, the causeway thou wilt take ; 
Be circumspect ; on both its sides are deep, 
Wide waters ; on your flanks the enemy 
Will fight in boats, and balk pursuit ; have care, 
And when thou find'st a breach commingling deeps 
Elsewise had flowed apart, or broken bridge, — 
'Tis done to stop our march, — delay thou there; 
First fill the gap a safe and solid path, 
Then on and win success. 



no Gnatemozin. [act hi. 

Alderete. 

Oh, never fear ! 
Suspicious, and with cat-like feet, we'll test 
Each foot of ground. 

Cortes. 
Remember, fill each breach, 
Or in the turn of battle thou art trapped. 

Alderete. 
Trust an old soldier. 

Cortes. 

I will take this street, 
Converging with thine own, both centre one. 
Send messages, as you advance, how goes 
The battle. We will join our forces at 
The market-place. Remember, fill each breach. 

Alderete. 
Oh, general ! let us advance. 

Cortes. 

Go. 



scene v.] Gtcatemozin. ill 

Alderete. 

Comrades, 
Onward, and ere night fall we'll dry ourselves 
In Guatemozin's palace. On ! on ! on ! 

Exeunt Alderete, Panfilio, Jeronimo, Pedro, 
Fern an, and soldiers in one direction, and 
Cortes in another. 



SCENE V.— MEXICO. 

Another street of the city. A part of the same 
battle. Enter Oyot, Culquil, and other 
Aztecs, flying. 

Oyot. 
Stop ! We will wait again ; when in bow-shot 
Let fly at them, to prick their fury on, 
And then away. 

Culquil. 

Their anger is the bait 
We angle with. The foolish fishes bite ', 
We'll land them high and dry. 



112 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

Oyot. 

They come in shot ; 
Now shoot {they let off their arrows). Away, away, 
they are on us ! 

Exeunt all. 
Enter Cortes, Farfan, and soldiers pursuing. 

Cortes. 
Come to a stand ; we gain suspiciously ; 
They lure us on with seeming chance to strike, 
And then are off, like frightened birds, to flit 
Out of the fowler's reach. 

Enter Messenger from Alderete. 

Cortes, to Messenger. 

How goes it with 
Alderete ? 

Messenger hands a paper to Cortes. 

Cortes, reading. 

We meet with no resistance ; 
We have approached almost the market-place. 

Alderete. 
So soon ; can he have filled 
The breaches in the causeway? And if not, 



scene vi.] Guatemozin. 113 

He is in jeopardy. The clanging strife 
Should reach us here. 'Tis ominously still ! 
Is it he blindly falls into a trap? 
Farfan, advance to where yon street this joins ; 
Hold with your company the vantage ground : 
No farther go, nor let a careless foe 
Unguard your watch, or tempt you to pursuit. 
Of aught amiss, send word. I with the rest 
Must take precautious care some churlish fault 
May not deprive what easily were ours 
By bravery. I go to Alderete. 

Exewit Cortes and a part of the soldiers. 



SCENE VI.— MEXICO. 

The broken bridge. Another part of the same 
battle. Enter Alderete, Panfilio, Jeronimo, 
Pedro, Fernan, and other soldiers. 

Alderete. 
A huge, deep cut ! This will delay our march 
Beyond our patience, already fretted to 

8 



H4 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

A sweat by hinderances. Fill up the breach ; 
Tear off the stones, and hurl them in the flood. 

The soldiers work at filling the breach. 

Alderete, to soldiers. 

Fill up ! fill up ! Ye work like sleepy men ; 
Is there no bottom to the hole ? 

Jeronimo, aside, to soldiers. 

'Tis hungry 
For stones as he for gold. 

Alderete. 

This dilatory, 
And unforeseen, and most inimical pause 
Breaches the solid movement of our march, 
And danger floods the gap. We must go on, 
Our foes but gather strength while we stay here ; 
We all can swim. Panfilio, remain 
And fill the breach, then join us with thy force. 
I and the army will go forward, — breast 
These waters. Hasten in the work and share 
Our glory. Forward. 

Alderete and the army cross the breach, and exemit. 



scene vi.] Guaternozin. 1 1 5 

Panfilio. 

So I am left behind 
To waste my opportunities in work, 
The dull background where knightly deeds are blazed, 
Forgotten in their shine ; to fill a ditch 
By opening betwixt my interest 
And me a wider gap ; and what reward ? 
To see this one's promotion, that one's honor. 
The braggart action fills the world with praise, 
Because the eye loves color and the ear 
Loves sound. If eyes and ears are such, need I 
Do thankless work ? Men neither see nor hear 
The patient, humble, unrewarded deeds 
That are the bony frame, the muscles strong, 
And lungs of true renown ; but mouth and kiss 
A rosy cheek, and praise the boastful cries 
Of wagging tongues. So, so ; I am no fool ! 

{To the soldiers?) 
How goes the work ? 

Jeronimo. 
The breach is hard to fill. 

Panfilio. 
The dullest hind is equal to the task 
Of tumbling stones. 



n6 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

( To the soldiers. ) 

Jeronimo, remain 
With half my company and fill the breach ; 
The rest will march with me and aid our army 
In the grand assault : fill up the ditch, then on, 
And follow me. {To those with him.) Forward, 
and join our friends. 

Exeunt Panfilio and soldiers, 

Jeronimo. 
Comrades, these stones are heavy. 



Pedro. 
I heaved near broke my back. 



Ay, the last 



Jeronimo, sitting down. 

Let's rest ourselves. 
How like you, comrades, this foundation work ? 

Pedro. 
I like it not : 'tis not a soldier's choice. 

Jeronimo. 
We common soldiers are foundation stones: 
Our bodies, mortared fast by discipline, 



scene vi.] Guatemozin. 117 

Lie hidden and forgot beneath the dome 
Called glory, where no better men than we 
Have lightful home. 

Fern an. 

We are the solid base 
Of all; should we but shake ourselves 'twould fall. 

Jeronimo. 
Why do we fight? 

Pedro. 

For gold ? 

Jeronimo. 

There is none here. 

Fernan. 
Then let us go, and get it where it is. 

Pedro. 
We must fill up the breach. 

Jeronimo. 

They swam it once, — 
Can swim again. 



n8 Guaternozin. [act hi. 

Pedro. 

Cortes will punish us. 

Jeronimo. 

We follow good example ; surely what 

Our betters leave is best for us, if aught 

Goes wrong (Cortes is too precautious), but 

If aught goes wrong, on them will fall his wrath. 

First Alderete, — Cortes will stop there, — 

He is to blame ; then on Panfilio 

Will Alderete hurl small thunderbolts ; 

On us Panfilio, the popinjay, 

Comes with his flash in th' pan. 

Fernan. 

Ay, let us go. 

Exeunt, all crossing the breach. Enter Cortes 
and soldiers. 

Cortes. 

'Tis as I feared. O, fool impetuous! 
To scorn delay, the slow but sure, to risk 
A battle — that of all uncertain things 
Most likely turns on something unforeseen — 
With this worst enemy, with biting mouth 



scene vi.] Guatemozin. 119 

And widened throat to swallow up a host, 
All hungry in thy rear. 

Cortes, to the soldiers. 

To work, my men ; 
We must fill up the breach with utmost speed. 
With repetitious urgency, that trenched 
Upon the wisdom which would choose to lead 
An enterprise, one like a boy in mind, 
Whose thoughts are full of play, and need an oft 
Repeated lesson, I warned him, but in vain. 
And yet we have to trust such men, and o'er 
The edge of sharp necessity to hang, 
Our only hold the finger strength of wits, 
Which, if not reinforced, will drop us down 
To ruin. 

The great Aztec trumpet sounds in the distance, 
followed by a great shout. 

The Aztec trumpet sounds to battle ; 
That hideous yell has peopled all the air 
With charging foes. What thousands are on them, 
And I not there ! O this iron — this stone — 
This dungebn of impossibility ! 
When action loudest cries for liberty, 
And all our needs stretch out their pleading hands 
To us for help, that shuts us prisoners ! 



120 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

Nay, grown too free am I, beyond my strength, 
Stretched to tenuity ! I am with you ! 
I cheer you on — I fight — my noble soldiers ! 
The tumult nears us ; we are driven back ! 
Work for their lives ! Fill up, fill up the breach ! 

Cortes joins them, throwing in stones with his 
own hands. 

Cortes, stopping. 

Too late, — we cannot do it ! Take your arms 
And stand a solid front ; they must stop here. 
Yonder they come, the tumbling driftwood, hurled 
By a mortal freshet. 

Cortes, shouting to the retreating Spaniards. 

Stand ! By all the blows 
Your swords have struck, and never failed to win 
A victory, stand ! Make the dead a wall 
To rally on ! Keep off, keep off the breach ! 

Enter Spaniards, flying; they jump into the water 
and struggle across the breach, followed by the 
Aztecs, who plunge in after them, and in boats 
attack Cortes. 



scene vi.] Guatemozin, 121 

Cortes. 

Cut down, cut down, and thrust the spluttering fiends 
To sink and fill the damned hole ! Pull out 
Our comrades ! Keep the form unbroken ! Now, 
San Jago ! and at them ! Lay on ! lay on ! 

Fighting ; finally exeunt Cortes and Spaniards, 
forced back by the Aztecs. 

Enter Tacuba, Oyot, Culquil, and Maxtla. 

Oyot. 

Ha ! ha ! ha ! ha ! The gods are with us now ! 
How we did rumple up and tear to rags 
The war-wove fabric of their army's power ! 

Maxtla. 
Truly, they thought we were afraid of them. 

Culquil. 
We only drew our breaths to blow at them, 
When, dust and feathers, how we swept them out. 

Enter Guatemozin. 

Tacuba, to Guatemozin. 
My lord, we have fulfilled all your commands. 



122 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

GUATEMOZIN. 

A few brief words, a modest speech withal ; 
But with the commentary of to-day 
On them, the brightest deed in history : 
Ay, one that reaches to the future for 
Unwritten leaves to fully tell the story 
Of to-day. Soldiers, uncertainty is gone, 
And Mexico saved. We will go praise the gods 
For what is done to-day. 

Soldiers. 
Long live the king ! 

Shouting and confusion of joy. 



scene vii.] Guatemozin. 123 



SCENE VIL— MEXICO. 

A room in the palace. Aqalan sitting at a window, 
singing, the while ; enter Tacuba. 

Song. 

Ah, little birds beware ! 

If you dare 
To sing a sweeter tune, 

I'll ensnare 
You all to love the moon, 
So little birds beware. 

And up, up ye will fly 

In the sky, 
And search it for my boon ; 

Would ye care 
In love how high the moon ! 
So little birds beware. 

Then down, down ye will fall, 

Songs and all, 
For flying far too high 

In the air; 
And loveless ye will die, 
So little birds beware. 



124 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

Tacuba. 
Thou art merry, Acalan. 

Aqalan. 

Why should I not 
Be happy ? Hope has turned a smiling face 
Again. This dread calamity that stared 
At us with horrid looks is fading off, 
A vapor that took form unreal of woe. 
How brightly crimsons in the west the sun ; 
With what a flood he fills the room. 



Tacuba. 
The setting sun. 



Oh! ay, 



ACALAN. 

And see, he spreads above, 
And reaches to the east. 

Tacuba. 

The dark, sad east. 

ACALAN. 

No longer sad, her cheeks are blushing joy : 
He kissed good-night, and said I come at morn. 
I sat here singing, when, perched on a tree, 



scene vii.] Gnatemozin. 125 

A choir of mocking-birds outrivalled me ; 

And so, defiantly, I sang the song 

You heard me sing. But thou art more than gloomy. 

Tacuba. 
O, Mexico, thy night is coming. 

A^ALAN. 

What 
Disaster comes on us ? We conquered at 
The broken bridge. Did not the priests predict 
Our foes to be destroyed, our triumph sure ? 
Have not their allies fallen off like leaves 
Dropped by a dying tree ? 

Tacuba. 

■ All this, alas ! 
The time is gone, but not our foes. 

A^ALAN. 

So soon, 
And they yet here ! I was so full of joy, 
The hours were winged like pretty birds that flash 
Their feathers in the sun ; nay, Tacuba, 
It is not gone, the gods are true. 



126 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

Tacuba. 

The priests 
Have proved themselves the liars of the gods : 
The allies of our foes return to them ; 
They come invisibly as leaves in spring ; 
Each morn there is more, and darker falls the shade. 
I fear the Spaniards not ; we fall by hands 
We taught to war, we sting ourselves to death. 
Istrisuchil, your brother, led the way, 
And robbed us of Tezcuco ; and they go 
One ally now, and now another. States 
Our arms have raised from abject slavery, 
Enriched, and shielded with continual peace, 
Have turned against us parricidal hands. 
This city, built on islands, has no fields 
To grow the fruitful maize and noble agave. 
Our bread comes from our allies on the lands 
That bound our lake. If they refuse us aid, 
Whence comes our food ? Already we are pinched, 
A scant supply is coming from a few; 
When all are gone starvation conquers us. 
There's reason in my gloom, to think to see 
Thee droop and fade, and shrivel up and die. 

Enter Tizoc, and listens unperceived. 



scene vii.] Guatemozin. 127 

AgALAN. 

Istrisuchil ! Why was he not another's, 
And not my brother ; kin in blood as heart 
To some unmotherly one, who killed her babe 
Because she wearied of him ? 

Tacuba. 

Hatest thou 
Beyond forgiveness? 

AgALAN. 

Ay. 

Iacuba. 

I hoped when all 
The evil came, and our last strength were gone, 
Thou mightst a refuge find with him. 

AgALAN. 

What, I ? 
O, any other deep of woe than that ! 

Tacuba. 
We men make war ; we are effect and cause, 
And on ourselves judicially inflict 



128 Guatemozin. [act hi. 

Its penalties ; but ye are innocent, 
And should not perish with the guilty. 



AgALAN. 

No; 
There is no division here, we share your joys, 
May we your sorrows? We have double grief, 
And on our private pains, vain of your love, 
Looking for smiles, we place these tearful gems, 
Calling as doth a bride her lord to see 
Of what abundant beauty is his gift. 
Let us be wedded to one sorrow though 
Maidenhood sparkles with the hopes of earth. 

Tacuba. 
Thou wilt not then make friends with him? 

AgALAN. 

Wilt thou 
Insult me more? O, Tacuba, thou hast 
Disgraced me in thy heart ; some other love, 
A low and selfish woman, formed by thee, 
Deception of the mind. Go, leave me alone ; 
I cannot talk to thee. 



scene vii.] Guatemozin. 129 

Tacuba. 

Pardon, I thought 
To save thee. 

AgALAN. 

What ! wouldst thou intrust me to 
A fiend ? 

Tacuba. 

Forgive 



A^alan. 

Didst thou not hope to save 
Thyself, not me? 

Tacuba. 
Never. I will not live 
To see my country's ruin. 

A^ALAN. 

Ah, Tacuba, 

I doubt thee. 

Exit AgALAN. 
Tacuba. 

0, was ever love so lost 
Within the darkest woods of fear like mine ? 
The path I found, and hoped would lead me out, 

9 



130 Gnatemozhu [act hi. 

Ended a deeper maze ; some savage beast 
Made it ; my folly tears my heart away. 

Exit Tacuba. 
Tizoc, advancing, 

A lover's quarrel, after the approved 

And ancient models. If friends so easily 

Fall out, how can our hands, when enemies, 

Keep off each other's throats? She mate with him ! 

No, no. With what brave beauty strode she off! 

But he lugubriously is endowed ; 

His face belies him not. Our cause was ne'er 

More prosperous ; and were it not, I might 

Be friendly with Istrisuchil, or be 

The enemy of self I never was : 

With Guatemozin is success. Methinks — 

Ay, ay, this quarrel '1 turn me good ; 

This rill, that wanders and is lost in sands, 

Tapped by a trench that through my meadows runs, 

To irrigate my fortunes, and at last 

The spy I've played on them be well rewarded. 

I must concert a plan to profit of it. 



act iv.] Gnatemozin. 131 



ACT IV. 

SCENE I.— MEXICO. 

A street of the city, outside of the barrier. After a 
battle ; the dead are lying where they fell. 

Enter Tizoc, holding a scroll. 

Tizoc. 
The safest is the wisest policy. 
First hazard little, then, if need be, more 
And more, as would a dainty thief who metes 
The vessel which he fills with precious oil, 
Little by little, that he spill it not, 
And tell-tale waste proclaim the robbery. 
The king will pass this way ; he daily goes 
The outposts round. Befriend me, chance, this time ; 
If he once sees this scroll the thing is done. 

Opening and reading the scroll. 

Istrisuchil, the Lord of Tezcuco, 

To his ally, the Lord of Tacuba : 

The ancient friendships of our thrones are joined 



132 Guatemozin. [act iv« 

By durable and common interests ; 

Though broken to the eye, our neighboring shores, 

Beneath the quarrelling of tempests, join. 

Thou art secure ; bring Agalan to me, 

My messenger is trusty. 

If the king 
Be not persuaded, Agalan will be, 
That Tacuba a traitor is. 

Approaching one of the slain. 

Tezcucan ; 
And by his badge one of the body-guard 
Of Istrisuchil. His hands grasp at the air, 
While clutching at the foe in rage he died. 

Placing the scroll in the dead man 1 s hand. 

Grip that, my boy; that stiffened arm will hold 

Untiringly. He is the instrument 

Most fit to give the king the scroll : he '11 look 

That whilst 'twas carried to Lord Tacuba 

To 've been smote down ; so violently stopped 

The life in him, that death with rigor kept 

This attitude, and holding up the scroll 

He lies, and shows how he was carrying it. 

Then comes the king, and sees it ; some disclosure 

Of Cortes' plans, he thinks, is to be found \ 

When, lo ! 'tis Tacuba a traitor is. 



scene i.] Guatemomn. 133 

Within this broken dwelling I will ensconce 
Myself, and watch the end ; and none too soon. 

Tizoc hides. 
Enter Guatemozin and Tacuba. 

GUATEMOZIN. 

O, Tacuba ! this swift, resistless blast 

We fly against ; we rise and beat the air, 

Are stationary, — then no weary bird 

Flies with the storm, driven by springing winds, 

More rapidly than we, on, on to pierce 

The thickening troubles madly striven from. 

Tacuba. 
When once the current turns, or destiny 
Reaches a hand remorseless, large, and strong 
Enough to grasp a star, and crack its shell 
As easily as thou or I an egg ; 
Reaches and takes us 'tween the thumb and finger, 
Ah, what are we ? We crumble in the hand, 
As butterflies leave on our fingers dust, 
Go lame and die, killed by the lightest touch. 

Guatemozin. 
But we must struggle on, and foot by foot 
Contest the ground ; 'twere cowardice, default 



134 Gnatemozin. [act iv. 

Of duty, not. Futurity, who knows : 

Though every finger of adversity 

Spread like converging rays from lurid fires, 

That burn unseen beneath the verge of vision, 

Though they brighten while we weary at the work, 

We must not leave the labor of to-day. 

Tacuba. 

If we must perish, and I feel we will, 

It will be utterly ; then why bear we 

Labor and pain for naught ? Let us sit down 

Until insensible, still as the hills, 

We turn to dust, and leave our history 

A web that stretches out unwoven threads 

Over the future, struck by deathless winds, 

That sweep the hollows of eternity, 

To quiver, and complain on ears forever. 

Guatemozin. 

The law of life is live as if forever, 

The present always is, the future never. 

It is the voice of faithful nature; she 

Surrenders not, knows no captivity; 

The plant sends down its roots and up its leaves 

For sustenance. The parching drought may come, 



scene i.] Guatemozin. 135 

It searches for, drinks the last drop, and dies ; 
It does not turn a bird, and fly away. 

They approach the dead Tezcucan, Tizoc from 
his hiding place eagerly watching them, when 
enter a company of starving Aztecs searching 
for food. A Woman finds on one of the slain 
some food, a man snatches it from her f and> 
runs away. 

Woman, running after him. 
'Tis mine, 'tis mine; O, mercy, give it me ! 

Exeunt Man and Woman. 

This engages the attention of Guatemozin and 
Tacuba; they pass without seeing the scroll. 

Guatemozin. 

This last recourse to search the dead for food ! 

Ah, Tacuba, my starving people ; woe 

Is me, — I have no food. To-day I watched 

A warrior while here the battle raged, 

He fought so bravely; near him stayed his wife, 

As near as would the press of battle grant ; 

She held her babe, and covered with a shield 

Dropped by some fallen soldier; when the strife 



1 30 Gnatemozin. [act iv. 

Allowed she bore her husband arrows, gave 
Them with a kiss. I marvelled at such love. 
And when the soldier fell, she ran to him, 
She kissed his lips, and strove to stanch his wound ; 
But vainly, which she knew, and stopped and gazed, 
Her dry and parched cheeks unmoistened by 
A healing tear, gazed on the wasting bloom 
That plashed upon the ground, now on her child ; 
And then her face with such commingled love 
And horror shown, and to his bleeding breast 
She placed the starving child, and let it suck ; 
Which, when his father knew, he turned, 
Looked on his wife. It was immortal ; there 
Was something more than human in his face \ 
It said my life is freely given, — live, my child. 
And then it dimmed, as doth the polished gold 
Grow dull when breathed upon, and he was dead. 

Tacuba. 
And yet such valor, such devotion fails 
To save us. 

GUATEMOZIN. 

Knowest thou the future ? 

Exeunt Guatemozin and Tacuba. 
Tizoc emerges from concealment. 



scene ii.] Gnatemozin. 137 

Tizoc. 

Faugh ! 
Unkingly nonsense. What have we to do, 
Whose veins are filled with rarest blood of earth, 
With common griefs? The common die for us ; 

We live for self. 

Taking the scroll away. 

I'll stake my life on't next. 



SCENE II.— MEXICO. 

Inside the barrier. 

Oyot, Culquil, Maxtla, and others. A tumult ; the 
people running together. 

A Voice. 
Give up the city. 

Maxtla. 

Ay, let us surrender ; 
We are unfit to fight more. 



138 Guaternozin. [act iv. 

Oyot. 

No; we'll fight; 
Better to die a freeman than a slave ! 
Cry down the cowards ! We will fight ! 

Voices. 

Fight! fight! 

Maxtla. 
Cowards ! our bravery, has it not shown ? 
Ye all know me ; mine own familiar friend 
Might not for this disguise of wounds and what 
This pilfering famine leaves me — skin and bones. 
Cowards ! when brave men find the battle gone, 
Are they bereft of reason, such as fear 
Deprives the mind, that they must blindly rush 
On certain doom ? Let us surrender now ; 
The time our wounds are healed we will renew 
The war ; we perish uselessly elsevvise. 

First Aztec. 
Ay, we will fight no more. 

Second Aztec. 

Fight ! do ye call 
This fighting, barely strong enough to lift 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 139 

Our swords ? We strike so lightly, they no more 
Ward off our blows. 

First Aztec. 

Our final overthrow, 
Because we are so numerous, delays ; 
They weary killing us. 

Third Aztec. 

If we had food, 
We would fight. 

Fourth Aztec. 
I broke my fast this morn on slime 
I scraped from off the buttress of the bridge ; 
It had a watery, mildewy taste, 
But I feel stronger for 't, and am for war. 

Fifth Aztec. 
I ate a toad. 

First Aztec. 
There's poison in its head. 

Fifth Aztec. 
I ate it head and all, and I say fight. {Retorting.') 
And what hadst thou to eat? Thou shudderest. 



140 Guatemozin. [act iv. 

First Aztec. 
No matter what ; I had enough. 



Enough ? 



Fifth Aztec. 

Thou lucky man ! 

Fourth Aztec. 

He means more than enough. 
How pale he gets? He sickens on it. 

A Woman, one demented by suffer ing. 

Eat, eat; 
With eating teeth are worn away. See, mine 
Are precious pearls, — for so my lover said ; 
I will not harm with eating what he praised. 
How sweetly sing the birds — 

Cheerily, cheerily, blithely and free, 
Not any, not any sorrow have we ; 
Up with the breezes, we flutter away, 
Down by the roses to swing on a spray. 

Merrily, merrily, dwell we the trees, 
Twittering, snapping the goldenest bees ; 
Singing of summer, and loving begun, 
Warm as a lily abloom in the sun. 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 141 

And they eat worms, 
And worms eat men. How fat they are, and we 
So lean, so lean. Ha ! ha ! ha ! {Showing her teeth.} 

Don't they glisten? 
He said they did. Saw ye him? 

Oyot. 

She is crazed. 

The Woman. 

He went to battle now two days agone; 

Hungry, — he starved himself for me, — and I 

Shall never eat again. Ah, me ! no more. 

Oyot. 
Good woman, thy lover is dead. 

The Woman. 

Dead, dead? 

Dead, dead ? No, no ! No, no ! He is alive ! 

No, I am dead ; come to my funeral ; 

There'll be fine cakes and drink for you. 

She wanders to one side. 

Maxtla. 

On eating 

Always. Poor thing ! The agony which fills 

This city, were it substance, 'twould be hard, 



142 Guatemozin. [act iv. 

And arch us o'er in such a stony cell 
That mercy, though it grasp the thunderbolts 
Of all the upper skies, and hurl them on't, 
It would not break. Our every hope is gone ! 

Woman, returning. 
I found his shield and spear, and a dead man ; 
I buried him. 

Flowers for the head, 

Flowers when we wed, 

Flowers for the dead. 

Flowers are beautiful ; 
They are not hungry; they eat dirt — there's plenty : 
Dead men are turned to dirt. The birds eat worms, 
And worms eat men ; so do the flowers sweet : 
His lips make pinks — there's honey; out o' his cheeks 
Come roses ; violets make eyes for some, 
For him are pansies, gold and dark ; and lilies 
Bloom in his teeth, and grasses in his hair. 
Did ye see him ? Tell him to come to me. 
Give me some bread. (-Begging, and they refusing. ) 

Thou, sir. Thou, sir. Ah, me ! 

Exit woman. 
Maxtla. 
Good citizens, yield to the general wish. 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 143 

Culquil. 
Be not deceived ; if we had yielded while 
Our city stood, we would have homes ; save these, 
All is a ruin ! What is life without 
Companionship? Are not our friends, our wives, 
And children dead ? Then let us die, and die 
Not by the slow and base decease of slaves, 
Of all our ancient enemies the scorn, 
To see the treachery of friends rewarded 
With parting of our power ; let us live 
But for one purpose, to revenge our wrongs, 
And die with joy of battle in our hearts. 

Oyot. 

Ay, let us die like men accepting death, 
Not fleeing with our eyes distent by fear 
To see the deeper depths of trouble, nor 
With eyes bedimmed, blinded with grief, to what 
The conqueror looks whom we beseech, contempt, 
Granting our prayers with our slavery ; but 
With eyes calm as the lake that ruffles not, 
When all the blood of dying day is shed, 
And calmer grows as darker falls the night. 
Have not our hearts o'er olden stories burned 
Of how our fathers died ? 
Now, we may die as gloriously. 



144 Guatemozin. [act iv. 

Voices. 

No surrender ! Let 

Us go defy the enemy ! 

Enter Tacuba. 

Oyot. 

Here comes 

The Lord of Tacuba. {Accosting htm.) Has Cortes sent 

Ambassadors to treat for our surrender ? 



Ay. 



Tacuba. 

Oyot. 
What has willed the king ? 

Tacuba. 

He, moved by pity, 
Seeing your sufferings, has closed his heart 
To what his valor willed, and is resolved 
To yield the city. 

Oyot. 
Never ! he shall not ! 
We want no pity. Go to him and plead 
For us, most noble Tacuba, that he 
Dishonor not his reign, or make us shame. 

Enter Ambassadors, going to Cortes. 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 145 

Oyot. 
Bear ye the terms surrendering the city? 

Ambassador. 
In the king's name, let us pass. 

Oyot. 

Come all, and stop 
This shame. 

Oyot, to the Ambassadors. 
Back to the king, and tell him we, 
The people, have refused to let you go. 

Ambassador. 
You are disloyal. 

Oyot. 

Nay, we have no king. 
He has dethroned himself, surrendered us, 
And now we owe allegiance to ourselves. 
We vote for war. 

Ambassador. 
He will be very wroth, 
And punish you. 

10 



146 Guatemozin. [act IV. 

Oyot. 

With arson ? Doth a man, 

Whose house incendiary flames enwrap, 

To put them out build fires within ? What pains 

Of punishment are greater than we bear ? 

Would he add slavery ? 

Enter Guatemozin. 

Guatemozin, to Ambassadors. 
Why stand ye here ? 

Ambassador. 
The populace have set themselves against 
Our going. 

Guatemozin. 
Let them pass, good citizens. 

A Voice. 
No, no ! Hast thou forgot King Montezuma ? 
We slew him for no worse a thing than this 
Thou doest. 

Guatemozin. 
Shame on you ; is it, base churls, 
For this that I have clouded manliness 
With shadows of your woe ! 'Tis easy when 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 147 

We suffer injury to loose our wrath. 

There is relief and riotous joy in vengeance ; 

But to forego, to still the tempest down 

That rages in the heart, by freezing o'er 

A righteous anger ; to congeal the warm 

And noble passions of our being, lest 

If they should reign ye would be sufferers, 

Is harder. Had I yielded to my heart 

Its dearest wish, I would have dared the worst 

That could befall a mortal man ere I 

Surrendered. 

Culquil. 

He is our king, our noble king ; 
We yield all to thy will. 

Oyot. 

Pity us not ; 
Or, if thou pitiest, hear us, O king. 
Pity the rage that fills our bosoms, seen 
The desolation fallen on our homes ; 
Our kindred, all that made life lovable, gone 
Forever ; we would join their company, 
And come to them smiling the light of battle ; 
Not cringing as base slaves, who change the lash 
Their master scourges with for conscience' whip. 



148 Guatemozin. [act iv. 

GlJATEMOZIN. 

Have ye your will. The need for treaty is gone. 

Exeunt Guatemozin, Tacuba, and Ambassadors. 

Culquil. 
Hasten, and man the ramparts. 

First Aztec. 

Ay, we come ; 
We are decrepit with hunger ; grown old. 

Second Aztec. 
Look up, what loathsome clouds will rain on us; 
Yon vultures circle o'er our heads. 

Third Aztec. 

A sign ! 

A sign ! behold with them an eagle flies. 

Maxtla. 
The end is near : this morn, when rose the priests 
To daily sacrifice, a serpent coiled, 
And hissed upon the altar. 

First Aztec. 

What doth this mean ? 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 149 

Maxtla. 

Hast thou forgotten of our cognizance 
Of state ? An eagle clutching in his claws 
A writhing snake ; the eagle's flown up there, 
The serpent's here. 

First Aztec. 

Why do we fight ? Let us 



Lie down and die. 



Maxtla. 



Last night I saw above 
The lake, which looked all blood, a bandage bind 
The firmament, from which dropped crimson fire, 
As if the heavens were wounded. 

Oyot. 

Signs and signs ; 
No better signs than we are to ourselves. 

First Aztec. 

Listen, I hear the steady march of forces : 
Let us go down, 'tis weariness to fight ; 
We will lie down and die. {Descending.') 

Enter Aqalan 



150 Gicatemozin. [act iv. 

AgALAN. 

The enemy ! 
Do ye desert your posts ? 

Maxtla. 

We cannot fight ; 
'Tis useless. 

A^ALAN. 

What ! a woman weak as I 
Show men their duty. I will call your wives, 
And we will watch the walls, and ye may go. 
No, ye are brave ; the gods will pity us : 
A breath to nerve the winds they need but give 
To blow our foes like broken straws away. 

First Aztec. 

I feel a sudden quickening of air, 

As if a god had turned and looked on us. 

The wind rises. 
The wind ! the wind ! 

Oyot. 
Let us return to duty. 

They man the ramparts again. 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 151 

AgALAN. 

Tc be a woman is to yield to man. 

When clanging arms and battle cries are loud : 

The time for argument is gone : love is dethroned, 

She, Queen of Reason, sits a lonesome one, 

Tear-dimmed, with all her courtiers gone. Could I 

But plead with them to go away and leave 

Us to our own the happiness and peace 

Which culprits are, by not an act of ours, 

Of wrong the Spaniards have, they would not heed 

My gentle glances or soft words, could I 

Look tenderly on monsters such as these ? 

No ; we must stand and see our brothers fight. 

Why were we not endowed with strength and armed, 

That love might reign in battle for the right ? 

Oyot. 

The enemy are coming on us ! Up ! 
Up, and at them ! 

Trumpets are heard outside sounding a charge, 
and Spaniards heard shouting and rushing to 
the attack. The Aztecs defy and hurl their 
javelins down on them. 



152 Guaternozin. [act iv. 

COLQUIL. 

Come on our thorny bush ; 
'Tis dry and stubborn. 

Oyot, drawing his bow. 

Fly, my arrow ; peck 
Yon boaster in the eye. 

Maxtla. 

Come up, come up 
To us. Why tarry you ? Come to our eyrie ; 
Ha ! ha ! we are too rough for these gay birds. 

A^alan, ascending the rampart. 
Give me a spear, I'll strike one loyal blow 
For Mexico. 

She takes a spear from a soldier and hurls it 
down, then turns and covers her face. 

Oyot. 
They fly ! The gods are with us ! 

The co7iflict ceases. 

A^alan, descending. 

He looked at me ; his fair and youthful face 
Had pity in it. Did I slay him ? 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 153 

Maxtla. 

Nay; 

Thy spear smote on his casque ; the summer rain 
Could patter harder. 

AgALAN. 

I repented it : 
Weak heart, weak arm, you are well joined in me. 

Oyot. 
They come again. Strike ! Strike for Mexico ! 

The Spaniards return and attack with redoubled 
vigor ; they break down the barrier and enter, 
A Tezcucan seizes A^alan, and is about to 
slay her, when enter Istrisuchil, Farfan, and 
Panfilio. 

Istrisuchil, rescuing her. 

Hold ! hold ! hold off! she is my sister. Fair 
Sister, 'tis many days since we have met. 

A^ALAN. 

Istrisuchil, thou art no more my brother ; 
I will not take my life from thee — slay me. 



154 Gnatemozin. [act iv. 

What ! shall the hand that has his country slain 

Be my savior, and I, by gratitude 

Condoning, be accessor to the crime? 

If there are men among you who have hearts 

Where pity lingers yet awhile, slay me, 

And rid me of this shame. 

Fernan, to Panfilio. 

As fair a woman 
As ever met my eyes. Mark how she queens 
It o'er her brutish brother. 

Panfilio. 

They are unlike 
As is a lily to a toad. 

Istrisuchil, seizing her. 

Thou wilt 
Not take thy life from me ! 

Farfan, i?iterfering. 

My lord, forego ; 
We have our general's orders to preserve 
All prisoners, and those who do not fight, 
From harm. Give o'er, — dost thou persist? Unhand 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 155 

The woman, or wert thou fourfold the king 
Thou art, still I would cleave thee to the weasand. 

Enter an Aztec soldier, running. 

Soldier. 
The king, the king is taken ! All is lost ! 

Ac^alan. 
O, Guatemozin taken ! Lost ! lost ! lost ! 

A^alan swoons. 



156 Guatemozin. [act v. 

ACT V. 

SCENE I.— MEXICO. 

A room of the palace. 

Guatemozin sitting with his face covered by his mantle; 
the Queen is regarding him sorrowfully. 

Enter A^alan. 

The Queen, to A^alan, and pointing to Guatemozin. 

See, there — he sits above companionship 

In sorrow as he was in majesty. 

O, Agalan, I wedded but his half, 

His gentle, tender half that took delight 

In me, my dalliance of wifely love, 

And gave me sympathy ; that other half 

He wore a crown, thought wrinkled on his brow, 

And sternness closed his lips, and in his eyes 

A nation looked at me, and I, abashed, 

Drew back. I fear the glance of many eyes. 

At times when we in thought were closest drawn 

Each to the other, then has come this king, 

So grand, and cold, and wise, between us. 



scene i.] Guatemozin. 157 

AgALAN. 

And 
Thou canst not comfort him ? 

Queen. 

I cannot ; he 
Is more the king without his crown than when 
In visible and royal state he ruled. 
Wilt thou not speak to him ? I have beheld 
In thee the same o'ermastering that loads 
My tongue with silence ; thou canst find and touch 
Some hidden, frozen spring to warmth again. 

AgALAN. 

There is a privacy of grief, of closed 
And darkened windows ; dare I enter where 
The light may not ? A pallid modesty 
Of woe, the soul disrobed of every joy, 
Stands fearing his own eyes. 

Queen. 

But speak to him. 
His outward stillness is the icy crust 
Of coming death ; it thicker grows as die 
The fires hope kindles. 



158 Guatemozin. [act v. 

A^ALAN. 

I will speak to him. 

AgALAN, to Guatemozin. 
0, king, awake. He heedeth not. 

Queen. 

Again, 
And louder. 

A^ALAN. 

O, king, awake. 

Guatemozin, uncovering his face. 

Awake ! would I 
Could sleep ; 'tis time to sleep. I close my eyes, 
They open inward to a larger world. 
O, earth, thou art a gleaming flake that melts 
Into the night, and thou, poor sun, wouldst come 
To lighten me, as thou didst swaddle with 
Thy beams an infant world, too monstrous grown, 
Too black is this. What cries of dying men 
In echoes louder, louder coming back. 
Anguish, as if all they that ever died 
Were dying o'er again in my mad ears ! 



scene I.] Guatemozin, 159 

My eyes are hot with blood. O, I would sleep 
A dreamless sleep. To wake is to dream. O, what 
A foolish dream was mine ; I thought that courage, 
Self-sacrifice, the fullest duty done, 
Ay, more than done, to supplement weak hearts 
And minds out of my strength, would win of gods 
And men the victory. I dreamed, I dreamed ; 
'Tis time to sleep, to sleep. 

He covers his face again. 

Queen. 

He will go mad, 
Or die ; he must be roused, some passion moved 
To rush swift on his heart, and startle him ; 
Since love has failed, arouse his anger, let 
Hate chafe the broken heart. 

A^ALAN. 

No common hurt 
Will move him. 

Queen. 

Mock, deride his sorrow ; sing 
Of our former greatness, sing the psean King 
Cihaupan sang bringing his captives home. 



160 Guatemozin. [act v. 

AgALAN. 

It is a song of triumph, full of pride, 

Elation, and of victory; no, no; 

'Tis far removed from him, as heaven from earth. 

How can I sing with such a tremor in 

My throat, and such a load upon my heart, 

And such a song, discordant as a laugh 

In th' chamber of death ? 

Queen. 

If it stirs thee so, 
It will move him the more. 



She sings. 



AgALAX. 

I'll try to sing. 

I come the lord of men and kings, 

A sun among the stars, 

A light no lightning scars ; 
As tempests waste with stormy wings, 

I sweep the earth with wars. 

Guatemozin uncovers his face, and gazes at her. 

O, soul, thou treadest down the grass 

Of nations ; down they kneel, 

And bow with all their weal; 
They bow down to the ground and pass 

Forever 'neath thy heel. 



scene I.] Guatemozin. 161 

My queen looks from her window : deck 

Thyself with feathers gay ; 

I bring thee spoil to-day, 
Fine needlework meet for thy neck, 

And damsels for thy prey. 



Guatemozin. 

What ! has my reason gone, my ears turned liars, 

My eyes deceivers, and my memory 

Broken, its fragments patch so wrongly? Go I 

Thou hast the voice and form of Acalan, 

But she would never mock her country's fall. 

O, bitter, bitter woe, that stops not at 

The actual infliction, but must arm 

Imagination with illusions that 

Entangle good with evil, till the good 

Is traitorous, and those we love unworthy. 

ACALAN. 

My lord, I am Acalan. 

Guatemozin. 

Thou substance real ? 
Come near {touching her). Away, I loath thee ; O, 
my gods, 

ii 



1 62 Gnatemozin. [act v. 

Was this last blow wanting? (To A^alan.) Thou 

wisely waited 
Until calamity had opened wounds 
To strike thy dove feet in and tear me. Go ! 
What fools we are to let the thrifty grown, 
But short-lived entities of earth, to grip 
The solid trunk of us that must endure 
Long after they are dead. 

A^ALAN. 

Thou art unjust ; 
When thou wert king, and strong, and bold, and fortune 
Smiled on thee, what was courage but content ; 
Deceitful calm of seas, an accident : 
For cowards may be brave when prosperous ; 
The substance is in us ; the merit is 
When all that we have wrought about our lives 
To feast the ears and eyes ; to yield the mind 
The worthy use of thought ; to prompt the soul 
To noble deeds, goes as the changing year, 
And nothing leaves but winter in the heart, 
To stand alone thy inner fibres strong 
Till summer 'turns. 

GUATEMOZIN. 

Am I a brute, to crop 
The herbage of content in times like these, 



scene I.] Gtmtemozin. 163 

When every feeling weeps not for myself, 
But for a glory gone ; a race extinct ; 
A purpose unfulfilled ; a void, that down 
Through endless ages questions of the gods 
With e'er recurrence, and no answer given? 

AgALAN. 

The gods weep not. 

GUATEMOZIN. 

They have no cause. Am I 
A god? 

AgALAN. 

Thou art no god, alas ! I thought 
Thee nearly one. The gods are merciful ; 
But weep not. 

GUATEMOZIN. 

It would be unnatural not ; 
Betray a nature base. 

A^ALAN. 

I would not have 
You so ; but tears are not so excellent, 
That they can enter heaven. Arouse, O king, 
And sorrow like a man who yet has strength 
To bear a greater burden. 



164 Guatemozin. [act v. 

GUATEMOZIN. 

Am I weak, 
Or has my sorrow grown presumptuous, 
Usurping not mine own ? But thou art strong, 
Or cold : how couldst thou sing that mocking song? 

AgALAN. 

Am I not used to suffering ? This poor, 

Sick head of mine so beaten, buffeted 

By mine own sorrows, that the pains they quicken 

Lie in the sense all stunned ; the shooting pang 

Is gone, wild agony is o'er ; the dull, 

Cold ache remains. Now, since the hopes I built 

On thee are gone— no cure, no restitution 

Possible — I grieve not ; the sense is dulled. 

Tears, tears have been my food. Ay, I am cold. 

Rememb'rest thou a traveller, returned 

From journeying the barbarous North, told thee 

How that a rude and hardy people dwelt 

Within the woods, and who, when brought to die, 

Sung of their victories, and died with words 

Of triumph on their lips ? 

Guatemozin. 

I have been weak, 
Fair cousin ; pardon my too angry words. 



scene il] Guatemozin. 165 

Queen. 
O, Guatemozin, hast thou no word for me ; 
Am I henceforth a houseless wanderer ; 
And did thy love go with thy crown ? 

Guatemozin, reaching out his arms to her. 

My wife ! 



SCENE II.— MEXICO. 

A street of the city, 

' Enter Jeronimo, Pedro, Fernan, and Soldiers. 

Fern an. 
What think ye, comrades, of our spoil of wounds? 
There are enough of us to stock with beggars 
Three kingdoms. 

Jeronimo. 

Ay, we all are beggars to 
Old miser fortune, and, like poor men's coats, 
Our bodies are all over patches, rents 
Sewed up, a hundred wounds : they are our coats 
Of arms. 



1 66 Guatemozin. [act v. 

Fern an. 

Poor coats to keep out cold. 

Jeronimo. 

But good 
Enough to show in th* wind. There's money in't; 
More than is got by fighting. We will home ; 
{Mimicking?) Go begging, hat in hand, — " Good 

citizens, 
Your honor, may it please your worship, give 
To the poor soldier wounded in the wars 
A little to keep life in his old body. 
Thanks; may the saints heap blessings on your head." 
Foh ! foh ! it maddens me to think of it. 

Fernan. 

Ho ! ho ! it makes me laugh ; we are a joke, — 

A fat and saucy joke in our lean eyes. 

Our sober earnestness is farcical : 

We have stern faces, thinned by hardships, scarred 

By wounds ; but back above them in the skull, 

That firmament of night, what pigmies dwell 

Our peopled brains, with less of sense than maggots; 

They prove the cheese is rich ; we that we know 

How to starve. 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 167 

Jeronimo. 
Comrades, truly we are fools : 
Having the power, yet yielding Cortes all 
To enrich himself, and we get nothing. 

Pedro. 

Do 

You think that we are cheated of our shares ? 

Jeronimo. 
Ay, I think so; 'tis common talk. Go, read 
Thou the lampoon we nailed upon his door : 
One-fifth as leader and one-fifth as king, 
Thou hast a thief ' s and traitor* s reckoning, 

Fernan. 
Pedro, mark me, Antonio was 'fore 
His time ; the army for revolt is ripe ; 
We'll plunder Cortes of the stolen gold. 

Pedro. 
But Guatemozin said there was no gold. 

Jeronimo. 
Hast thou not marked of Cortes' tenderness 
For this king? Trust me, he buys immunity. 



1 68 



Guatemozin. 



ACT V. 



Here comes the royal treasurer; we'll lay 
Our grievance and the emperor's 'fore him. 

Enter Alderete. 
Sir Alderete, thou art charged to see 
The royal fifth, when we divide the spoil, 
Be not diminished of an honest part. 
'Tis said that Cortes treasure has concealed, 
Which was uncounted when we made division ; 
And that the crown is mulcted of its dues, 
And we reduced to beggary. 



Alderete. 



What grounds 



Have ye for such a charge? 



Jeronimo. 

There is a prince 
Among the prisoners who, when we charged 
On Guatemozin and that lord they style 
Of Tacuba that they had hid the gold, 
Came privately to me, and said he knew 
The treasure hidden, but not where. This, when 
We told to Cortes, was not listened to ; 
But he commands the def'rence due to kings 
Be paid to them, and such the state they keep, 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 169 

We being victors are the victims made 
Of him we conquered. This most unnatural, 
Unheard of course must have some motive ; none 
More probable than Cortes is a gainer. 

Alderete. 
And yet a probability is at best 
A shadow which we see ; the substance real 
May differ from the form which we imagine. 
As men have shadows much alike — some lights 
Make most a likeness — this may lie to us. 

Jeronimo. 
If Cortes is too high, is Guatemozin ? 
Let us demand that he be tortured ; which, 
If Cortes dare refuse, we will cry out 
Of his complicity in what he fears 
That Guatemozin will betray of him. 

Alderete. 
'Twill force him to consent; and once we have 
The king upon the rack or toasting in the fire, 
We'll have the truth. 

All. 
'Tis good. 



170 Guatemozin. [act v. 

Alderete. 

I will to Cortes, 
And move him to our wishes. If he yields, 
All's well ; if not, we meet again and force 
Him to it. 

Jeronimo. 
Ay; there speaks a man ; we'll wait 
Thee here. 

Alderete. 
Nay ; follow me, and clamor at 
His door; 'twill help my argument. 

All. 

We will. 

Alderete. 
See yonder: he is coming here; retire, 
I will accost him ; watch my movements well : 
I'll raise my hand for signal, then draw near 
And help me : we must capture him by storm. 

Exeunt all but Alderete. 

Alderete. 
First, I will ply my arguments to blow 
Red hot his temper; then I'll call my hammers, 
And we will forge him to our purpose tight, 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 171 

As iron welds with iron ; it must look 
Unpreconcerted : I will caution them. 

Exit Alderete. 
Enter Cortes. 

Cortes. 
And now the work to do : the roofing o'er 
The edifice of our conquest, which remains 
To make it habitable, must be had 
At dizzy heights, and half my powers lost. 
A builder on the lofty walls he rears 
Has narrow scope, though wider vision ; ay, 
He sees how high he is, how far the fall, 
And wary on the narrow ridge he clings, 
One hand for labor, and one hand to hold. 
Here is the madness of my soldiers wild 
To peril me. The vertigo of success 
Swims in their heads, threatens authority : 
They band about the city, blowing hot 
And roaring like a furnace, till their fury 
Scorches the prime of discipline. Fools ! fools ! 
And foremost 'mong these malcontents are those 
Conspirators whose head grown to the wind 
Of power was blown away ; their lives are mine, 
As was Antonio's. I must forearm; 
Hither Sir Alderete, the treasurer, comes. 

Re-enter Alderete. 



172 Guaternozin. [act v. 

Cortes. 
Sir Alderete, what errand leads thee here 
What meaning has thy quick presaging manner ? 

Alderete. 

To plead the cause of men whose fortunes are 
In debt to wounds they got in serving thee : 
We want a fair division of the spoil. 

Cortes. 
Ye have had it. 

Alderete. 

But Guaternozin hides 
Away so much, our share is like the dust 
Of empty bins, betraying what was there 
And what we lose. Yield him to us to torture ; 
We'll force the truth. 

Cortes. 

We promised otherwise. 
No ! no ! a breach of faith a pardon finds 
In no emergency. 

Alderete, signalling. 

If there is gold, 
He first broke faith with thee ; I beg thee, thwart 



scene ii.] Guatemozin. 173 

Us, not of this. We feel that we are wronged : 
One of the royal house of Mexico 
Has vouched the hidden gold ; justly incensed, 
We ask to try our only way to find it ; 
And rumor says — and pardon if I cause 
Thy ears to burn, 'tis done of friendliness — 
Thou'rt party to the wrong. Give o'er to us 
The fallen king to torture ; save thy name 
From all complicity. 

Enter Soldiers. 

Thy hold upon 
These soldiers is o' the past ; the term of their 
Enlistment was the conquest of this land ; 
The day of settlement is here. The gold 
Thou canst not pay with promises — the gold 
Is ours already. Yield the king to us. 

Cortes. 

Sir Alderete, truly I did think 

This city full of gold, and all there was 

Is fairly counted. Charge no shame on me ; 

Rather would I ye had my portion all, 

Could I with honor give, and pay my debts ; 

But ask not this. 



l 7A Guatemozin. [act v. 

Soldiers. 

Justice ! Give us our gold ! 
Yield Guatemozin to be tortured. Gold ! 
Gold ! gold ! We will melt out of him the ore. 



This cannot be. 



Cortes. 

A Voice. 
Art thou in league with him ? 

Cortes. 

Whose voice was that ? Stand forth and hear my answer j 

'Twill please him less than does his question me. 

No ! no ! no ! no ! Stand back {drawing his sword). 

Ho, guards ! attend 
Me here. 

Alderete, to soldiers. 

Fools ! fools ! Away until his choler 
Cools - Exeunt Soldiers. 

Alderete. 

Still hear me, my general ; thou hast foes 
At court so weighty clinging to this handle, 



scene ii.] Guatenzozin. 175 

They'll pull thee down. Velasquez burns to be 
Revenged on thee ; Fonseca is thy foe ; 
And there are always jealous ones to drag 
The prosperous in the mire. 

Cortes. 

The balance swings : 
The times, indeed, are critical with me : 
Fonseca, jealous for his power, sets 
Authority against our good, because 
His priestly will may not say come and go, 
Do this, not that, as freaky as the wind 
None know the course of. I have much to fear : 
This obdurate and sullen fool may gain 
The emperor's ear; and now the conquest o'er, 
Some fat and lazy courtier may be deemed 
Sufficient for these mellow times of peace. 
My safety was our danger; now I've pulled 
The chestnuts from the fire. I must look to 't. 



Alderete. 

Lose not thy friends ; they clamor for their rights : 
Almost a mutiny now threatens thee; 
Thy army is thy strength. 



176 Guatemozin. [act v. 

Cortes. 

I yield ; have ye 
Your will ; but, Alderete, thou must have 
Full charge, and no unneedful cruelty. 

Alderete. 
I will obey thee. 

Cortes. 

Go ; leave me alone. 

Exit Alderete. 
In spite of all, my heart misgives again ; 
'Twill dim the past and make our labors more. 



SCENE III.— MEXICO. 
A room in the palace. Guatemozin and Tacuba. 

Guatemozin. 

Gold ! gold ! gold ! gold ! I think of it, there comes 
A barrier impervious to me, 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 177 

A thickening to dull, and moveless form 
Of airy particles that danced my brain, 
Each shining with its modicum of truth, 
Like flashing motes, the sunbeam's little worlds. 
What is this famine of the heart for gold? 
What food to feed on ! 



Tacuba. 

Strange as is their speech, 
'Tis stranger. In their land beyond the seas 
I've heard it has some use to us unknown ; 
The person that possesses it may have 
The richest viands, costliest apparel, 
House like a king's ; that men will bow, enslave 
Themselves to him for it ; that it does more 
Under the heavens than any other thing : 
Turning men's love to hate, their hate to love ; 
It conquers armies, rules great states, at last 
Ruins them all ; they say that there are men 
Willing to sell their country, wives, and children 
For this insensible, untoothsome, cold, 
But glist'ning ore. These foreigners for gold 
Have dared th' invincible, and proved it false : 
O, fallen Mexico, it conquered thee. 

12 



178 Guatemozin. [act v. 

GUATEMOZIN. 

Ay, it is true : first Cortes comes and bids 
Me give him gold : I said I have no more. 
What disappointment flashed his cloudy face ; 
A king might lose a province with less gloom. 
Then Alderete, he of nimble legs, 
We trapped behind the broken bridge, and cried 
Gold ! gold ! and last a herd of common men 
Came, all for gold, and threatened me with death. 

Enter Alderete, Farfan, and Soldiers bring- 
ing in two wooden settles, and two pans full of 
live coals. 

Alderete, to Soldiers, and pointing at the prisoners. 
Seize and securely bind them on the seats. 

The Soldiers seize and bind Guatemozin and 
Tacuba. 

Alderete, to Soldiers. 
Place at their feet the fires. Stay, not too near ; 
Gently at first. 

They place the fires, purposing to burn their feet. 

Guatemozin. 

What strange indignity ! 
Wherein have we unhaply angered you? 



scene in.] Guatemozin, 179 

Alderete. 

I have been learning oratory, my lord ; 
My blunt and soldier tongue could not persuade, 
So I have garnished me with certain forms 
Of metaphors, the rhetoric of fire, 
Which, schoolmen say, is always eloquent. 
(Pointing to the fires .) Look you, they are brimful of 
argument. 

Guatemozin. 
Art thou to torture me ? 

Alderete. 

Ay ; or the truth. 
Where is thy gold ? 

Guatemozin. 
Ye have it. 

Alderete, to Soldiers. 
Nearer. 

They push the fires nearer, 

Alderete, to the prisoners. 

There — 
With what seductive fervor it appeals. 



i8o Guatemozin. [act v. 

GUATEMOZIN. 

Thou fool, is lying so a part of thee? 

Why should we hide the gold, who never knew 

Its value till this hour ? 

Alderete. 

Art thou so dull ? 
It is a witty flame. {To Soldiers.) Move up the fires. 

The fires are pushed still nearer. 
Enter A^alan and the Queen. 

Queen. 
What do they here ? What fearful looks they have I 

A^ALAN. 

What weights the air with horror ? It is fire ! 

Queen. 
Where, where? 

A^alan, pointing. 

There ! O, my. king ! O, Tacuba ! 
Up ! up ! ye burn ! 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 181 

Queen. 
O, my husband ! {She swoons.*) 

AgALAN. 

I will save 

You. 

She runs to draw the fires away, when Alderete 

ifiterferes and stops her. 

Alderete, to A^alan. 
Nay, fair lady, they have chosen this. 

To Soldiers. 
Move back the fires, and let their bodies cool ; 
The flames will freshen and bite harder for it. 

The fires are moved back. 

Alderete, to A^alan. 
My lady, they withhold great treasure which 
The general surrender gave to us ; 
Bid them reveal their hidden store of gold ; 
We have no other power than pain o'er them. 
If they disclose, these fires shall harm no more ; 
If not, they both shall toast till black as coals. 

To the Soldiers, and pointing to the Queen. 
Away with that sick woman 'fore she wakes. 

The Queen is carried out. 



1 82 Guatemozin. [act v. 

AgALAN. 

My king ! O, Tacuba ! where is the treasure ? 



There is none. 



Tacuba. 



Guatemozin. 



Agalan, go thou to the queen, 
That she have needful tendance in her troubles. 

Alderete. 

To work S we'll play no more. Push up the fires 
Close to their smoking heels ; hot ! hot as hell ! 

AgALAN. 

O, mercy ! mercy ! Have you none? You have, 

Or you would be inhuman. Sir, kind sir, 

I see a gentleness that contradicts 

The fearful import of your words ; be moved, — 

I know the king and Tacuba, — be moved ) 

They speak the truth; there is no gold. 

Alderete. 

No gold ? 
Art sure of that? 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 183 

AgALAN. 

Thou art relenting ; for 
The love thou' It need and find when helpless, yield ; 
Have mercy on these hapless prisoners. 

Farfan. 

Sir Alderete, this has gone as far 
As any need. 

Soldiers. 

Ay, ay ; they have no gold, 



Is plain enough. 



Tacuba. 



Why was I left to live ? 
O ! O ! O ! O ! Be merciful and slay me ! 

Alderete. 

The truth ! the truth ! Where hidest thou the gold ? 
And I will end thy torment. 

Tacuba, to Farfan. 

O, slay me ; 
Thou, sir, thy dagger ; quick, stab me. O ! O ! 



184 Guatemozin. [act v. 

AgALAN. 

Where is thy leader? {Calling.') Cortes! Cortes! 

Cortes ! 

Exit AgALAN. 

Tacuba. 

Speed ! speed ! {Struggling.) 0, sluggard death ! 

Guatemozin. 

0, Tacuba, 
Weak Tacuba, bathe I in waters cool ? 
Is not this rippled fire that laves my feet ? 
Have we not keener pangs than fleshly burns? 
A wound so large it gaps a crater's lips, 
Unhealing, stony, deep to bowels of fire ; 
A torment all absorbing, and so wide 
No other pains can broaden ; but they fall 
Into the profound, as stars into the sun, 
Consumed utterly. Mexico — my mother ! 

Enter Cortes, Istrisuchil, and others, folloivers 
of Istrisuchil. 

Cortes. 
Have they confessed? 

Alderete. 

They still are obdurate. 



scene in.] Gnatemozin. 185 

Cortes. 
This will blot me. Remove the fires. O, fool ! 

Alderete. 
Stay, sir ; a little more and they confess. 

Cortes. 

Remove the fires, Sir Alderete. Thou 
Didst motion this in me to my dishonor ; 
I am all hot with shame and rage. 

Alderete. 

But, sir 



Farfan, to Alderete. 

Provoke him not, or, like the avalanche, 

Men near with muffled mouths, and dread to speak, 

For fear a whisper discompose the air, 

And pulse a mountain with a breath to fall, 

Hasty and blind his rage descends on thee. 

The prisoners are released. 

Re-enter A^alan and the Queen, and with them 
enter Oyot, Culquil, and other Aztec nobles ; 
they ricn to and embrace and support Guate- 
mozin and Tacuba. 



1 86 Guatemozin. [act v. 

Alderete. 

But, sir, we had grave ground for what we did : 
A member of the household of this king, 
Blood of his blood, was our assurance that 
We hunted no bad coppice for our game. 

AgALAN. 

What meanest thou ? 

Cortes. 
Canst thou lay hands on him? 

Alderete. 
He tarries at my quarters. 

Cortes. 

Hasten there ; 
Bring him to me; we'll put them face to face. 

Exit Alderete. 

Cortes. 

Attend the prisoners with proper care ; 
Bind up their feet, and medicine with cooling 
Lotions their burns. King Guatemozin, speak ; 
Art thou much burned ? 



scene in.] Gnatemozin. 187 

GUATEMOZIN. 

Much burned ? it matters not ; 
I am more burned in spirit than in body ; 
I yielded thee my crown, my life, my all ; 
And thou didst promise me security. 
You said my faith was cruel ; devil worship ; 
Thou earnest here more to release our souls 
From hell's embrace than win an empire : ay, 
Thou gavest me thy priest to teach me better. 
The story of thy God becoming man, 
And suffering death to honor righteous law, 
That justice might not lose at mercy's hands, 
Or truth be self-destroyed ; but all triuned 
In equal glory, dwell in th' act of Him 
Who made the law, that guilty men might hope, 
With fuller faith and purer lives, for peace 
With God, moved me : I was almost a Christian ; 
I thought if this be false, it is the sweetest, 
Holiest, grandest lie that ever spake 
On human lips. But is your faith divorced 
From practice ? Has it home within the ear, 
And passage of the lips, a house of winds, 
No shelter in the heart? Is it but words 
To fool the simple with? It seemeth so. 
What god have ye been worshipping to-day? 

Re-enter Alderete with Tizoc. 



This is the man. 



Guatemozin. [act v. 

Alderete. 

AgALAX. 

The Prince Tizoc ! 



GUATEMOZIN. 



Cortes. 



Tizoc ! 



Tizoc, didst thou lay charges on the king 
And Tacuba that they had hidden gold, 
Our lawful spoil ? Speak, or thy silence is 
The coward-answer of a guilty man. 

Tizoc, hesitating. 
Not on the king, but Tacuba. 

Alderete. 

Speak, soldiers, 
Ye were witnesses ; was it not on the king ? 

Soldiers. 
A.y, ay ; he charged them both. 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 189 

AgALAN. 

See to what straits 
The rancor of his hate has carried him : 
He was the enemy of Tacuba ; 
To compass him in ruin, his king, who loved 
And favored him, must suffer. {To Cortes.) O, thou 

fiend ! 
Justice for us and for thyself, a tool 
Of this man's villainy ! 

Cortes. 

We were hoodwinked ; 
A petty captive's tool. to our disgrace. 

Istrisuchil, to Cortes. 
Give him to me. 





Cortes. 




To die? 


Istrisuchil. 
Cortes. 


I promise it. 


with him ! 


Istrisuchil. 






Tizoc, thy scoffs and curses 



Come home to thee. I thank thee for the thought. 



190 Guatemozin. [act v. 

{To his followers.') Take him to Tezcuco into the fields ; 
Summon my slaves ; let them with bills and mattocks 
Slay him there. 'Way! « 

Tizoc is led away. 

Cortes. 
Let not the pains we caused 
Linger your hearts when fleshly wounds are cured : 
Our sorrow's healing take, and be heart well. 

Guatemozin. 

Thy penitence is good ; but better right 

Should always rule, for right is might in th' end, 

E'en in its overthrow victorious ; 

For every wrong doth breed a snaky brood 

That twine where flowery chaplets should have wound, 

Wounding the brows that deemed them ornaments. 

It was a little thing to break thy oath ; 

Who will revenge the friendless captive's wrong? 

The wrong ! The wrong ! Behold the evil king; 

He rules as doth a tempest ; whence his strength? 

From loyalty, a love to that most like 

Which children bear to parents ; yet so pure, 

And strong, and deathless thing becomes a curse. 

He makes his subjects evil, then a storm 

Against a storm, and evil self-destroyed. 



scene in.] Guatemozin. 191 

But right in splendor orbed shines on the calm, 
As the unclouded sun when winds are laid. 



A^ALAN. 

He swoons ! his poor, abused body breaks ! 
Help ! Help ! He is convulsed. 

Oyot. 

Raise up ! He stands 
Upon his fire-burned feet. 

Guatemozin gazes as into space. 

Guatemozin. 

These ceiled walls, 
Translucent as a filmy web, no more 
Are barriers to my eyes. A city stands — 
Here — O, my Mexico, where hast thou gone ? 
A city of great temples, thronged streets ; 
A multitude with blood upon their hands, 
Smearing the gold they clutch. War ! endless wars ! 
Brothers with brothers waging hell on earth. 
Ay, Mexico is revenged. O, victory ! 

He falls back into their arms exhausted. 

THE END. 



